23 Chapter 22: The Art of Alchemy

Alex presses on the confirm button as the system notification vanishes.

*Ding!*

[You have unlocked the skill [Transmutation]! 2 skill points are hereby consumed!]

[You have automatically learned the skill [Transmutation Lv. 1]! ]

[Current Skill Point Available:  18]

Going along with the flow, Alex decided to spend the remainder of his skill points on unlocking new skills of the alchemist skill tree.

[You have unlocked the skill [Repair]! 2 skill points are hereby consumed! ]

[You automatically learned the skill [Repair Lv. 1]! ]

[Current skill points available: 16 ]

[You have unlocked the skill [Extraction]! 2 skill points are hereby consumed! ]

[You automatically learned the skill [Extraction Lv. 1]! 

[Current Skill Point Available: 14 ]

[You have unlocked the skill [Fusion]! 2 skill points are hereby consumed! ]

[You have automatically learned the skill [Fusion Lv. 1]! ]

[Current skill points available: 12 ]

'I've got an interesting idea. Let's learn Golemancy while I'm at it.' He thought to himself.

Alex then presses on the darkened skill icon as the system notification then pops up.

[You have selected the skill branch [Golemancy] for 10 skill points! Do you still wish to proceed? Y/N ]

Alex presses the confirm button.

[You have unlocked the skill branch [Golemancy]! 10 skill points are hereby consumed! ]

[You have automatically learned the skill [Golemancy Lv. 1]! ]

[Current skill points available: 2 ]

He didn't stop there, Alex went all in, spending the last few remainders of his skill points until he has nothing left.

[You have unlocked the skill [Core creation]! 2 skill points are hereby consumed! ]

[You have automatically learned the skill [Core creation Lv. 1]! ]

[Current skill points available: 0 ]

"Ugh."

Alex felt a bit disorientated as his head starts to hurt a bit. Foreign knowledge that contains the art of alchemy, provided by the system, then rushes into his head.

It didn't take long for his brain to adapt to the changes, and process all of that information. He felt himself becoming enlightened.

'Let's try this skill out.' He thought.

Alex then opens up his inventory space and takes out his school bag, from one of the inventory slots.

"I've found it." He said as he rummages through his backpack looking for something in particular.

He took out a black ballpoint pen and some piece of line paper.

Alex then draws the transmutation circle onto the piece of line paper to the very best of capabilities. Though the transmutation circle isn't exactly perfect, it should be able to do its job.

"Now I just need a target to test out this skill with." He said.

'Hmm...'

Without much thought put into it, Alex then came up with an interesting idea to test the border limits of his transmutation skill.

He got up from his seated position, when all of a sudden, a silver metallic cube then rolls off from his clothes, tumbling over on the ground.

He picks it up and brings it closer to his face for a much closer examination.

"Isn't this a reward box, but the grade is slightly higher than the copper one," Alex says as he stores the silver reward box in his inventory space.

"I should save this for later." He said.

Alex then walks to the centre of the room, where there is a wide-open space, so that he could perform his transmutation experiment.

He places the sheet of paper, that has the transmutation circle drawn on, on the floor.

This sort of stunt, sort of draws the nearby people's attention, as they all looked towards his particular direction. Curious about whatever he is doing.

'The preparation is set.' He thought as he placed his hand on the transmutation circle.

"Transmute!" He uttered the skill name out loud.

The transmutation circle that is drawn on the sheet of paper, began to light up as sparks of blue lightning travelled down his arms, and into the transmutation circle.

He could instinctively felt his mana draining at an alarming rate.

However, his proficiency in utilizing mana has slowly improved, reducing the rate of mana consumption. Even if it is only a little.

The surrounding concrete stone that made up this entire floor, slowly begun to turn into grains of sand.

It rapidly gathers around himself, with him being at the epicentre of it all.

Thousands of grains of sand gathered beneath his feet, as the molecules rearrange itself, becoming many layers of atoms. It then transforms into numerous solid concrete stone bricks.

The concrete stone bricks are reassembled into a circular shape, resembling a doughnut, as he has created a small to the medium-sized firepit out of alchemy.

"I've done it. Looks like the experiment was a complete success." Alex exclaimed.

[MP: 17/235]

His mana bar drops down more than a half, and he has yet to fully recover his mana before he conducts his experiment, as the mana exhaustion status ailment then hits him.

'I'm feeling a bit dizzy.' Alex thought as he sat down on the outer rim of the firepit.

John who witnessed the whole spectacle from a distance was most certainly amazed by it all, as he came rushing over towards Alex.

"That was amazing, Alex! What did you do? And how did you instantaneously create this firepit from nothing?" John exclaimed as he proceeded to shuck Alex's shoulder in excitement, waiting expectantly for an answer.

"That is enough, John. I'm starting to see stars." Alex said starting to feel slightly sick by it all.

"Oh, right... I'm sorry. I guess I was too excited." John says as he then let's go of Alex.

Alex then forgave him, as he too felt eager and excited when he first used magic. The exhilarating feeling when he first used the fire magic spell.

The extreme heat that radiated off from the fireball. The warmth feeling of mana being transmitted through his body and into his hand.

The sensation felt so new to him. It's kind of a bit exciting.

"So what did you do? Was it magic..." John asked Alex seeking for an inquiry.

"It's not magic. It's al..." Alex was suddenly interrupted.

"It's alchemy. You've used alchemy, right." The person said what Alex was about to say.

"Right. Yeah, it's alchemy." Alex responded.

He was not at all amused from being interrupted. Nevertheless, he turns to face the person that interrupted him.

What he saw certainly surprises him. It was a close acquaintance that he knew.

'It's Zach.' Alex thought.

"How are you doing, Zach? I didn't know that you trapped here." John said as he initiates a conversation with Zach.

"Well, I'm okay for the most part. I was spending my lunchtime revising for the math test when you know what happened." Zach says to John and Alex listened.

Zacharias Kristopher is an upperclassman in the same year as John and Alex. However, unlike Alex who is in D, E, F form tutor group, Zach and John are in the A, B, C form tutor group.

"So how did you know it was alchemy, Zach?" John asked Zach on how he knew that it was alchemy.

John showed a perplexed look, unable to identify the obvious clues set out by Alex, but Zach was able to get the answer correctly at a glance.

"Was it not that obvious," Zach said as he lightly smiles.

"No."

John then shakes his head in denial which seems to further to amuse Zach.

"And I thought that you were an avid anime watcher, John." Zach said as he belittles John a bit.

"Well, it was only until quite recently that he started watching anime, and besides, I don't think Full Metal Alchemist is as mainstream nowadays." Alex says to Zach.

"Yeah. Most mainstream anime nowadays is all about Dragonball Super and Naruto Shippuden. But still, FMA is a beloved classic that I really enjoyed." Zach said so with a sense of passion as he places his hand on Alex's shoulder.

"So how have you been these days." Zach asked Alex.

"I've been doing fine, but not so great with the whole zombie apocalypse thing." Alex said feeling slightly depressed by it all.

"Seeing as how impressive you've gotten. You must have made a lot of progress, whilst grinding for levels." Zach said having become slightly interested in Alex's experience.

"Well, it wasn't quite easy reaching this level. I have to take a pretty much huge risk to make it this far." Alex grunted as he stares at his right hand.

"Well, if you feel like you don't want to speak about it, then I don't blame it's your decision." Zach said to Alex.

"It's not that I don't have anything to say. It's just that it's pretty much repetitive as we killed wave on wave of infected zombies, nonstop to reach our goal." Alex said with a hint of dissatisfaction.

"I understand, then it must be pretty boring, huh." Zach said to Alex.

'It's more exciting and pretty much exhausting than you think, fighting against a wave of zombies swarming all around you nonstop.' Alex thought to himself.