Eyes of an Alchemist

When Jonathan finally came to, he found himself all alone. Without any further delay, he checked the sky to estimate how much time had passed, and from the position of the sun beyond the now clearing sky, not much time had actually passed.

Jonathan was out for a few minutes at most. While not very long at all in terms of time, it was far more than enough time to get himself killed.

It was incredible stupid and insane to be lying about out in the open, especially when the whole forest had just become a free territory of sort.

Nothing would stop a wandering dragon dropping by and set up a nest.

The white dragon was gone, as indicated by the rising ambient temperature and the dissipating clouds above. Whether it was actually killed, Jonathan wasn't exactly sure. He did not have that information, but he had other information.

A lot of other information.

Somehow, Jonathan knew more about dragons than ever before. He knew that the white dragon was powerful enough to alter the weather and climate with its mere aura alone.

The same could be stated for the black dragon, whose affinity was fire.

There were obviously other affinities, such as wind, lightning and earth. They were considered as the most elementary affinities. Ice and snow were considered as secondary affinities, along with light and dark and many more. There were also tertiary affinities, but those were incredibly rare.

Then there were special and unique affinity such as space and time.

Jonathan wasn't sure how that knowledge would help him, but at least now, he knew there were other type of dragons in the world.

The only type of dragons that Jonathan had seen thus far were those of flames and snow. Flames type dragons were the most abundant, and they were also the most violent, as befitting of their elemental power.

The new knowledge within his mind was not limited to dragons. As a matter of fact, dragons were only a very small part of that knowledge, as dragons, like the Alchemist had stated, were only intelligence beasts as far as beasts were.

And the scary thing was, dragons were not the top of the food chain, not really.

Dragons were, however, still a force to be reckoned with, especially when a dragon reached maturity and earned Dragon Lord status. In the presence of a Flame Dragon Lord, everything would be reduced to cinder.

Jonathan shivered at the knowledge and decided to return to the bunker immediately.

It was incredibly foolish to stand outside in the open for longer than necessary, and while he loved to fully understand all the knowledge that he was given, he could do it in safety and comfort, away from any prying eyes.

On the way to the bunker, he noticed the fiery orb that the Alchemist had discarded, commenting on how useless it was to him. That said, it was not useless to Jonathan, as he knew, how priceless a dragon core was.

The Alchemist only made it looked easy. Fighting a dragon and successfully ripping out its magic core was an incredible feat for even a transcendent immortal, yet the Alchemist was above that. He could squash matured dragons like they were mere ants.

That alone spoke volumes about his might, and Jonathan glad that he had such a master, for one day, Jonathan would be in the same position.

Of course, Jonathan understood that day might be far away, but he was willing to reach there. To hold such powers in his hands, he could get rid of all the dragons in the world. Not just get rid of but to pay them back for the deaths and destructions they had unleashed upon the world.

And most importantly thing of all, for his late mother. It was what she would have wanted. Other than for him to continue to live. He would live on and carry her memory.

Jonathan picked up the magic core and placed it into a small pouch that was to his side when he had woken up. It was given to him by the Alchemist along with his new-found knowledge. Knowledge that Jonathan would definitely put to use.

But first thing first, Jonathan must relocate his safe haven.

The hidden bunker could no longer be considered hidden, and the longer he tried to remain there, the riskier it became. There was also a nagging problem of the devastated landscape. If no people dropped by to check it out, the dragons would.

While the dragons were territorial, they would rarely resort to outright killing one another. They were actually more unified as species than the prey they were hunting. Preys being humans.

Honestly, for all of history, humanity was never unified. Humans was pretty much the same anywhere.

Jonathan shook his head at that thought and entered his bunker. He made haste to pack all the critical item into his backpack. Foods. Waters. Medicines. Weapons. Those four were the bare essentials, and if he had room, he would bring with him something to trade.

Foods and medicine were the most common item to trade, but they were not the best trading items.

There were other better items for trade, and it was not in form of golds or jewelries. No body who had survived this long gave those commodities any mind, at least that should be the case. Still, there were plenty of nutjobs out there, and there were those trying to prove themselves or impress others.

By the time Jonathan finished packing, a realization hit him. He would never made it out of the forest alive. He was simply too far from the nearest town. To travel in the darkness of the night would be foolish when the shadows would be out to play.

Shadows.

Despite the newly acquired knowledge, Jonathan still did not know anything about the Shadows, only that they were not to be underestimated. They were attracted to light, as light would give them forms, allowing them to interact with the physical world in limited capacity.

That implied they were naturally incorporeal. That alone meant they were probably more dangerous than dragons, but dragons could hurt them as their elemental powers were still effective at attacking and destroying what was essential ghosts.

The same could not be said for humans, as there was no way for humanity to fight against Shadows.

Since Jonathan had no way to fight or even evade the shadows, he would make his journey at the first break of dawn. For now, a good night rest would do him good.

Jonathan was actually extremely exhausted, and the splitting headache did not help him in that regard.

It was already amazing that he managed to think straight and hadn't already collapsed after returning to the safety of the bunker, but then again, he had been through worst before.

Keeping the pouch safe on his person, Jonathan drifted into sleep. For the first time in so many years, the nightmare did not come. Unfortunately, he did not dream either.

There was simply no time.

His sleep did not last long, and when he came to again, the world outside the bunker was pitch-black, filled with howling winds. What little light was able to enter the bunker came from the twinkling stars above.

Jonathan groaned and rubbed his head before removing the scarf that cover his horrendous scar and trying to hammer the pounding headache away. He also allowed his eyes to adjust to the darkness. It took a moment, and once it did, he pulled himself into a proper sitting position and searched around for a bottle of water.

He found a bottle easily enough, and when his eyes landed on the bottle, he instantly knew that the liquid within wasn't exactly drinkable.

The little window hovering above the bottle tells him that its toxicity was nearly 100%. Drinking bleach would definitely result in his death.

Jonathan scanned around the room, allowing his awakened ability to analyze every possible alchemy ingredient for him. This was called the Eyes of an Alchemist. A passive ability granted to all Alchemist, at least that what his master had told him.

In the span of a few minutes, the Alchemist had parted him a lot of wisdom.

Jonathan eventually picked up a nearby bottle and downed the entire thing without a single hesitation, allowing the liquids to quench his thirst.

He tossed the empty bottle away and took out the pouch. It was time to check what kind of items his master had gave him. There were three items in total.

A ring. A book. And what appear to be a doorknocker?