All alone

Feldman Agate was writing a new book. He may not have ever became a ranked warrior, but he was a Master SS ranked Alchemist. Well, he was before he had children. It was an adventurous live with his wife for 40 years before she was pregnant with their first child. His wife was a powerful Advanced S rank Warrior, so she had left after their 3 sons had moved on with their lives. Feldman was a late aged man, his hair was gray, but he was far from frail. Average Fortisians could live to 160 without cultivating but would extend their life with each main and sub rank achieved.

She could live for almost 10,000 years at her cultivation level, let alone any more break throughs. He couldn't ask her to stay with him while he slowly died.

To make matters worse he had used a specially created pill to destroy his spirit pathways. This made it impossible to control his inner spirit. Without pathways, there was no way to guide his inner spirit out of his body to control the spirit materials, refining was something he would always be able to do as it was just the use of an enchanted fire. He had an Arctic Blaze infused furnace, so that would never be an issue for him.

As far as practicing Alchemy ever again though, this was just a fairytale for him. So, he put his practice to use the only way he could anymore. He would write guides to help further others progress. Of course, this knowledge came at a price, and not a cheap one. He sold plenty of guides for practice with certain recipes and could get 50 iron coins for them. This was his first fully comprehensive book. A perfect guide from apprentice all the way through rank A Alchemy.

He was going to make a fortune off of this one copy alone. He could easily sell it for 20 gold coins, but no one around their village could afford that. So, his plan was to take a trip to their county court. The county court was a large city located only 200 miles from their village. This was their centralized government point. It was also the closest city with an Arts Market.

*BOOM!!*

'God damnit. Those fucking Viscots are going to eat my whole flock' Feldman's eyes almost popped out of his head thinking that it was a pack of wild Viscots attacking his flock again. He had already lost 3 birds this month.

Feldman grabbed his Star Staff, a gift from his wife before she left out into the world, it was a S ranked weapon. The star staff was able to shoot beams of energy which caused the molecules in an area to fuse together with the intensity of a star. This was essentially a gun capable of shooting lasers as hot as the core of the sun. He burst out of his front door and in just a moment realized there wasn't a single Viscot in the area. But he did notice the small hole in his shed door that Evan had just been kicked through.

"Who the hell is out there?!?!" Feldman yelled at his shed. He was waiting for a response that wasn't going to come.

He started slinking his way toward the shed. He was aware that this could be a trap. This wouldn't be the first time he was robbed. He took a lot of the danger out of his life when he destroyed his pathways, but there were still those who wanted his recipes, or refining techniques. That's why his wife left him such a powerful weapon. She loved him with all of her heart, which is why she couldn't watch him grow old and die while she would stay young for another 8,000 years.

Feldman made his way over to the hole only to realize that there was a small child laying in a pile of rotted wood. Feldman's Alchemist axe was stuck inside the kid's leg and blood was flowing endlessly out.

Feldman quickly pulled an elixir out of his spirit subspace and poured it onto the top of the axe, flowing down onto the wound. After the blood stopped and the skin started to tighten around the sharp point of the pickax. Feldman pulled the ax out of the boy's leg quickly while shoving a dark red rock into the wound. After the rock was inserted, the wound immediately closed. The boys breathing calmed, and Feldman picked the child up and brought him inside.

Evan woke up staring at a strange ceiling with all kinds of geometric shaped carved into the wood. It was quite beautiful the way the lines would wind around each other, intersecting at the most perfect point. It was a mosaic of shapes, and they all fit perfectly.

"Ah finally awake. How are you feeling? There's a plate of food next to the bed, your stomach was growling while you were asleep. Don't move to quickly though you lost a lot of blood and will be a little woozy for a few hours." Feldman noticed the boy's eyes were open and wanted to give him a warning, so he didn't try to stand up and fall from the blood loss.

"What happened?" Evan was still in a daze. Woozy was an understatement. He was downright loopy. He hadn't felt like this since he tried marijuana in college.

"I'm pretty sure you were trying to kill one of my Clucks and got kicked into next week. My alchemical axe was impaled into your leg. Luckily, I got to you in time, another 30 seconds and you could have bled out." Feldman was half chuckling at the child's stupidity and half pissed that he tried to steal from him.

"Oh, about that sir." Evan started to say as he slowly reached for the plate of food on the table next to him. When he saw that Mr. Agate wasn't making a move to stop him, he quickly shoveled a bite into his mouth savagely.

"How long has it been since you've eaten?" Feldman asked with a puzzled and concerned expression. This was a child. How could he be this hungry? Someone should be taking care of him, right?

"Almost 5 days now sir." Evan answered, after quickly checking his memories. The last day this body had eaten was 4 nights ago. He had eaten a stale piece of bread that was found after scrounging the house for a morsel of food. At this point his parents had been gone a full week, and he didn't know when or if they would come back. Over-dosing was very easy to do with Spirit Crystals.

"Who are your parents? Where in the hell are they?" Feldman was no longer angry at the half starving child in front of him. All anger shifted to his parents after hearing that he hadn't eaten for 5 days. He was more astonished that the child wasn't skin and bones. This, of course, was thanks to the strength and stamina points he had allotted before starting his hunting trip.

"Filmen, and Anna Freedman, sir." Evan answered honestly. He didn't know or care about the former parents of this body. His parents were terrible people, when they were on drugs, but never was he at risk of dehydration and starvation. Sure, he was under nourished and basically took care of himself, but he never almost died. If his parents would have done that to him, he would have never helped them to get clean.

"Oh, then that's the case." The fire left Feldman's eyes the moment he heard those names. They were lost causes. "Well, if that's the case you are welcome to eat here until they return, but it won't be free. You will work for anything you take, deal?"

"D-deal." Evan was so excited that he could cry. The rough reality of this day truly hit him, as he could relax for the first time.

"Eat up then. It's almost time for bedtime chores. Since you're here your gonna pay back that meal you just ate, as well as the medicine and elixir that I used to save you."