50 Chapter 10 : Alchemy

Standing bare-chested in the underground chamber, James was silent with his eyes closed as a faint layer of aura evenly covered his body, he lowered his center slightly, retracted his right fist and threw a punch.

The air around his right fist cracked as a small amount of aura in the form of swirling fists hit the wall 3 meters away.

*Bang*

The impact of the blow made a hole about 40 cm thick and many cracks that spread over the wall.

But without stopping he lifted his right leg, which was covered with a fairly large amount of aura, and pivoted, kicking into the void cutting the air as if his leg were a blade.

*Swoosh*

A long line suddenly appeared on the wall as if it had been cut by a sword.

James then lined up his legs with his shoulders, joined his hands and slowly opened them, revealing a small ball of Nen that was spinning at full speed before he threw it towards the wall, but just as the ball was about to hit the wall he snapped his fingers.

"Burst!"

*Bang*

The small ball suddenly bursts in front of the wall creating a small shock wave that made the wall shake slightly.

"Hahaha finally, I finally made it." James laughed with joy as he lay on the ground.

He'd been training for four months to use his Nen programs in combat, he'd already done it six weeks ago, but he couldn't use several programs in a row until today.

But now he can chain three programs in succession without any problem, in the meantime he has created Six programs, Fist Realease, Ball Burst, Leg Blade, Palm Shock, Long Shot, Canon Balls.

In the meantime James has managed to learn and practice fish man karate and now he could use Hyakumaigawara-Seiken with almost no physical strength but because of his physical limitations he could only use Senmaigawara-Seiken once and in order to use it he has to strengthen his body with his Nen beforehand.

James slept on the floor for about 4 hours before waking up, after a few stretches he changed his clothes, then came and sat down at the wooden desk of Roman's master, took some paper, a pen and started to read one of the books in front of him, while writing on the paper.

After several hours he closed the book, sat down on the bed and ate one of the last rations he had stolen a week earlier.

He stared at the ceiling and thought for a moment before returning to sit in front of the desk.

James took a new blank sheet of paper and picked up his pen while looking at the open book on the desk for a moment before saying in a low voice.

"The alchemy to operate has three fundamental and inviolable steps :

Comprehension - Understanding the inherent structure and properties of the atomic or molecular makeup of a particular material to be transmuted, including the flow and balance of potential and kinetic energy within.

Deconstruction - Using energy to break down the physical structure of the identified material into a more malleable state so as to be easily reshaped into a new form.

Reconstruction - Continuing the flow of energy so as to reform the material into a new shape."

"All of which fall under the concept of Equivalent Exchange : "In order to obtain or create something, something of equal value must be lost or destroyed.""

"In standard practice, Equivalent Exchange is separated into two parts."

"The Law of Conservation of Mass, which states that energy and matter can neither be created from nothing nor destroyed to the point of elemental nonexistence.

In other words, to create an object with the mass of one kilogram, at least one kilogram of material is necessary; destroying an object with the mass of one kilogram would reduce it to a set of parts, the sum of which would have the mass of one kilogram."

"The Law of Natural Providence, which states that an object or material made of a particular substance or element can only be transmuted into another object with the same basic makeup and properties of that initial material.

In other words, an object or material made mostly of water can only be transmuted into another object with the attributes of water."

Then he remained silent for a moment and drew a perfect circle on the piece of paper.

"It has been a year and two months since I arrived in this world and I have been studying alchemy, but I still haven't felt the famous alchemical flow, perhaps it is because of my weak talent in alchemy."

"But if I remember well in the anime the alchemy of all Amestris people depended on the philosopher's stone of "father" then since I can't feel the energy of the alchemical flows in the soil which are in reality only the movements of the tectonic plates."

"Then I will replace it with my Nen as Edward did with his soul when him had been swallowed by the homunculus Gluttony."

James then began to draw in the circle in front of him.

"Since I'm not of this world and I want to continue using the alchemy even after I leave it, I must draw the symbol of creation in the centre of my circle."

So he drew two symbols on top of each other that looked like stars.

Then he drew a second circle around the creation symbol in the centre and then drew three triangles, one on the left, one on the right and one at the top of the circle.

"I need a DNA record so I can avoid the damage of my own alchemy, so I have to use the symbol of life, information about my soul, so I symbolize death, and finally the symbol of Gemini to fix the unity between my body and my soul."

He said drawing a symbol resembling the omega sign in the left triangle, an inverted omega in the right triangle and the sign of Gemini in the top triangle connecting the three triangle by a circle.

"To be able to use my Nen as energy without hurting or creating backlash I need to separate it from my body so the symbol of cancer, I want my aura to be used outside the circle so a triangle whose angles are outside the circle, reinforced by the symbol of the fish that will project my attacks."

"Now on the left side I write the symbol of fire, the right side the symbol of water and the symbol of air at the top of the circle.

In the center of the circle in the middle of the symbol of creation I write the sign of cancer that represents the solution." Whispered he maniacally while drawing at full speed on the paper.

Then some tens of minutes after adding more complex symbols to ensure the stability of his transmutation circle, James took a deep breath and joined his two palms.

"One year of training, one year of effort." Then James felt 30% of his body's aura disappear and he hit his palms against the circle of transmutation.

Blue flashes burst from James' arms resonated with the circle that began to light up.