Chapter 6 : Alchemy Works

“Now it’s time to synthesize…” Ren mumbled to himself as she made his way to the second story of the tower.

“Small, but it will do for now. I’ll renovate HEAVILY later.” Ren said aloud as he glanced around the space. Indeed, the tower’s diameter was only sixty meters which was a ton of space considering there was very little furniture. No beds or tables, only broken chairs in disrepair, this was all that remained.

“But that’s no problem for an alchemist.”

Ren walked over to the center of the room and took a seat before calling forth a large, pot shaped item from his dimension storage. It appeared in front of him, black metal with a large rim near the top.

He sighed upon looking at the old pot.

*This is the only cauldron I could fit. I really need to upgrade my storage space.* Ren thought to himself before he also pulled out several long pieces of fresh wood and proceeded to feed them into the empty cauldron. Almost as if an invisible black hole lingered over the opening of the pot, the large pieces of wood disappeared, turning into particles of light.

After repeating this proceeds five times he stopped stating, “That should be enough Wood Elements.”

Ren then got to his feet and held his right hand over the cauldron as a magical HUD appeared. He toyed with several settings and configurations before pressing a button near the bottom right corner of this screen.

“Let’s see. Two chairs, Two Circular Tables. What else? Oh! Wooden Bowls and Spoons….”

Ren continued listing off wooden items that he planned to create using the power of alchemy. Finally when he was satisfied, he started the process by pressing a gold button on the magical interface.

Ren then sighed as he took note of the timer which appeared along the outside of the cauldron as streams of soft light began to issue forth from the swirling energy bubbling within its depths.

“Three days. That’s going to take forever. I suppose I should prep some wood to fix the tower though as well.”

He got up and went around the room, collecting pieces of wood and broken board before placing them all into a pile in the room.

Ren then closed his eyes and focused, imagining all of the wood pieces falling apart at the most basic level. Eventually he infused his mana into this process and clasped his hands together forcing the wood pieces to become Wood Elements, raw material which could be used in synthesis.

“This shouldn’t take too long.” Ren said, nodding to himself as he counted the thirty floating orbs of Wood Element. They resembled translucent spheres of light green energy as they floated before him. He summoned the orbs into a ring on his finger, a storage device to collect and use elements -- given to him by his Alchemy teacher.

“All my elements are pretty low. I suppose I should get started collecting more tomorrow as well.” Ren whispered as he gazed down at the ring, another magical HUD appeared which showed several different icons, each with a number listed next to them. The icon which represented ‘Wood Element’ now read 45.

“The last thing I will do is turn these into boards. I wish I had Stone Elements I could mix along with them but.. It will have to do for now.” Ren held out both of his hands, palms forward as another magical HUD appeared, this time he used his mind to switch recipes until he found ‘Wooden Plank’. He placed the raw Wood Element into the synthesis at a cost of 2 Elements per crafting, then raised the quantity to the max.

“One hour. Not bad, I suppose. Though Master could do this instantly..” Ren remarked as he watched the progress meter begin to rise for each bundle of boards. Ren couldn’t help but yawn as his thoughts began to wander. It had been a rather long day and his body was tired, yet he couldn’t contain the feeling that he had walked into a world of infinite possibilities. When was the last time he felt this way?

*When I started learning Alchemy.* Ren remembered almost instantly the thrill which came from creating his first item. Even though it took him almost a day, a simple healing salve was his pride and joy at that time.

His mind snapped to as the sound of the first bundle of wooden planks dropped to the floor, seemingly out of thin air. Soon Ren had created as many planks as he could. He would use these to cover the large holes in the floor, ceiling and walls of the towers which were prevalent on each floor.

With the remaining wood he made a Wooden Hammer, taking extra care to condense the material as much as possible to create something sturdy. Last but not least, Ren created as many nails as possible with the remaining Metal Elements in his possession.

“Ah. Finally done.” Ren said as he took a load off just two hours later.

“Preparation for tomorrow, and soon my plans will come to fruition. BWA HA HA.” He cackled to himself as he rubbed his hands together.

“But for now.. Sleep.” He added as he laid against a nearby wall and made himself as comfortable as possible, quickly drifting off to sleep.