Alchemy for the win

It has been 5 months since the tragedy that has been dubbed The Disappearance In The Storm, on that faithful day 171 young men and women went to the magic tower to receive their grimoire's and all of them, together with the tower and the magic knight stationed at the tower, mysteriously disappeared

The nobles made quite a ruckus about their missing children and many magic knights were sent out to investigate but there was no luck for them, they couldn't find anything

This matter brought great worry to the magic knights who were confused by the sudden disappearance, it was even thought that there might be a traitor among them, but after countless investigations, both private and public no clues were found about what happened

The only thing that was found out is that dark storm clouds gathered above the tower, then the earth shook before finally, red lightning descended upon the world, and after all of that was over the tower and the people were all gone

So with the minimal course available to them, the magic knights called this a cold case and resumed that all of the people within the tower died, and they aren't wrong all accounted people who entered the tower indeed died however there was one survivor, the killer himself

Currently, there is a cocoon beneath the spot where the tower once resided, the magic knights did try to detect traces of magic in both the air and ground but since the cocoon contains no magical energy it was not found, and even though the knights flew up into the sky and dug 30 meters into the ground they couldn't find anything, because the cocoon was buried in 50 meters

Because of a long-time it spent not mooving the cocoon got dirty from the soil around it, yet even thou it is dirty the bright red, a white and fleshy look that was prevalent on the cocoon still remained as creepy and mesmerizing as ever

Typically the cocoon doesn't move or do anything, however, today is not a typical day, today is a very special day, for the first time in 5 months movent could be witnessed from the cocoon

First, it started small, some twitching here and there, but soon the cocoon began to move and shift the soil with it's thumping, the cocoon had begun to beat in the rhythm of a beating heart

The cocoon then proceded to move, even more, it began to wiggle, toss and turn at a rapid pace, it then opened up a little bit, creating a spiral pattern on top of itself before it began to vigorously rotate corkscrewing its the way towards the surface

Within a minute the cocoon had surfaced and its shape changed once again this time to resemble a bright red fleshy egg while in the center a dark shadow could be seen

Luckily for Adam, there was no person in a 10 km radius of this place, the knights couldn't find anything so they didn't want to expend any more manpower on here while the surrounding travelers and townspeople considered this a cursed place so they didn't dare come close

The cocoon remained in place for a few seconds before it started to glow, a light could be seen coming from the inside illuminating everything around itself in a creepy red light that would make even the most seasoned Horror move survivor shit their pants

It is this red light that made the dark shadow at the center of the cocoon stand out, even more, making it distinguishable that the shadow resembles a human in a fetal position

The light shined and flickered for a few more seconds, making the cocoon resemble a disco ball, before a crack/split formed vertically at the center of the cocoon, some steam escaped as the crack formed

The split seemed to have caused a chain reaction as the shadow within the cocoon started to stand upright and then the cocoon completely opened up with large amounts of steam and mist escaping out of the cocoon as if a steam explosion had happened within the cocoon while an exploding sound could be heard coming from the cocoon

All remained still and quiet for new moments before, from the cocoon, an arm reached out and grasped the edge of the cocoon pulling himself up and exiting out of the cocoon revealing the appearance of the shadow that was previously within the cocoon

"Fuh, that was refreshing." Said Adam as he entered out of the cocoon, all of this time spent in the cocoon really relaxed and changed both his body and mind, let's first start with the bodily transformations

One of the more noticeable things is that he got shorter, he went from 213 cm to about 203 cm which is a 10 cm decrease in height but that is justified since the cocoon de-aged him from 21 years old to 15, in reality, which it technically increased his height since when Adam was 15 he was 197 cm tall not 203 so he will probably grow even taller in the following years

The next change is a much desired one by Adam, he gained muscles, no not those lean ass swimmer muscles which have power hidden in them, no these muscles are big and powerful yet also somewhat sleek looking not grotesque as you would expect from enormously huge muscles that even bodybuilders would be jealous of

Finally, the last noticeable change is in his face, and hair, his once brown hair now turned golden/blond and while before it used to be short it elongated during his stay in the cocoon making it reach up to his lower back and touching his ass which became phenomenal

His face majorly changed, while before it had softer lines now it has very sharp, very angular and very defined lines

Overall he got a major increase in his handsomeness, if Adam could see himself in a mirror he would not be able to recognize himself, his current look can be best described as a mashup of Pickle from Baki and Dio from Jojo mixed into one body

But this transformation isn't purely aesthetic, it also brought with it some very practical changes such as Adam's body becoming faster, stronger, more durable, simply said everything about his physical body increased and was upgraded

However even thou all of these changes happened to Adam's physical body they are nothing compared to what happened to Adam's mind, this cocoon was not formed for Adam to gain a better body, no it was formed so that Adam would receive the complete alchemical knowledge of both Hohenheim and Father

'It seems that it all went without a hitch.' Adam thought as he finally opened his eyes and looked around himself, he has to admit that the catastrophe he caused was really massive since all that remains of the once grassy plains is a wasteland full of chared dirt

Well it isn't like that catastrophe happened because Adam wanted it to, it simply that alchemy is a foreign concept to this world so it took considerable power to enable Adam to use that power, besides that over 400 years of alchemical knowledge from 2 completely different beings also transferred over to Adam

That, of course, put huge amounts of stress on Adam's mind and body so they had to be upgraded, all of this required energy and as we all know about the Law of equivalent exchange says that in order to gain something you have to sacrifice something else and that energy and matter can be neither created nor destroyed so all of this energy had to come from somewhere

That energy came from the people who were surrounding Adam and the very tower itself, that's why all of it was destroyed but even with all of that Adam still lacked energy

That's why he went into hibernation for 5 months all the while the cocoon absorbed the energy of the surrounding area creating a wasteland incapable of being inhabited by any life for the next century at the very least

Adam looked around for his grimoire only to find it within the cocoon where he was residing

'Well, time for some alchemy.' Adam thought as he started to draw a transmutation circle on the ground

After about half an hour Adam had finally finished the circle, it is honestly one of the most complicated formulas ever, Adam had to connect both Fathers and Hohenheim's knowledge to create it but it was finally finished

Adam then took the Grimoire and opened it up selecting a certain age before he put it at the center of the circle, he double-checked if everything was in place and once he confirmed that everything is as it should be Adam clapped his hands and put them on the circle activating it

His Grimoire which was doing nothing suddenly started to decompose into dust-like particles before it went towards Adam's body and entering into his body

"Gaaah!" Adam whimpered out in pain as his Grimoire begun to be mixed together with his body, thankfully he had a very strong body so this didn't hurt that much and the process was completed in less than 3 minutes

'Seems like it was a success.' Adam thought as he looked at his hand with a very evil-looking smirk spreading across his face, the reason he had done this is relatively simple, Adam can't use magic

Adam's body is like Asta's, it contains no magical energy so Adam can not use magic but he can use alchemy, that is he can only use alchemy with the help of his grimoire

But a grimoire can be lost which would be inconvenient for Adam so what he did was simple, he sacrificed his grimoire for the power to execute alchemy just like in the series, with alchemical circles and without the use of his grimoire, but this also gave him a boost in power

To sacrifice, a grimoire was quite a huge deal, it's basically like sacrificing one of your arms or legs, so there is one other boon than Adam has gotten, the ability to perform alchemy without the use of transmutation circles

This ability to perform alchemy excited Adam to no end and he immediately clapped his hands together before putting them on the ground only for the ground to morph and form into a dirt version of his current self, all of the details are included

'So that's what I look like.' Adam said as he inspected his dirt clone, he must admit he is quite happy with his looks, he just doesn't like the long hair

So Adam claps his hands again and puts them on the statue creating a knife out of the arm, Adam the used that knife to cut off his excess hair

With all of that done, Adam looks around himself and seen nothing but the wasteland, so with no other options left Adam just shrugs his shoulders before picking a random direction where he started to walk towards

Now it may seem confusing as to how come Adam isn't affected by the fact that he had just killed 172 people? It is simple really

Alchemy has multiple parts to it, physics, mathematics, psychology and just some of the sciences it contains, there are many more, and philosophy is also a big part of alchemy and Adam just got over 800 years of alchemical knowledge with 400 of those years belonging to a power-hungry megalomaniac homunculus, it would be a wonder if Adam's mind didn't change

Thankfully for Adam, the other 400 years belong to Hohenheim, a very down to earth and emotional man so Adam didn't turn into a homicidal, power-hungry, god complex megalomaniac, instead, he just turned into a very cold person, who doesn't really care for the lives of others too much, although he still has his emotions intact they are just not very expressed

Adam walked in that direction for an hour at the very least, which was getting really annoying for him, even thou he isn't tired or anything, being without clothes and not having anything but think about his current situation really brings huge doses of boredom into of the already boring situation

It might not have been that mooring if he had something to see or experience but the problem is there are no living beings anywhere around him and the terrain is all of the same color and height, a light brown and completely flat terrain that offered no excitement for Adam

Luckily for him, he soon stumbled upon a road and on that road is a horse carriage with 2 horses pulling the carriage

When Adam saw the road and the carriage a smile spread across his face, the boredom has finally come to an end, it was about god damn time

"Hello!" Adam immediately called out to the person riding the carriage scaring the guy for a moment as he didn't expect for Adam to suddenly show up out of nowhere

"Uh, oh hello!" Only after calming down a bit did the guy riding the carriage finally calm down, although had a very confused expression as he greeted Adam back he still stopped the carriage

The confusion was only natural after all, if you were a peasant riding a carriage thru a supposedly cursed land wouldn't you be surprised if you saw a tall buff and handsome naked guy approach you from the epicenter of the cursed land and greet you

"So I was wondering if you could tell me the way to the Magical knight exam?" But Adam didn't really care for the man's thought and/or opinion, Adam is more concerned with the fact that he doesn't know how to go towards the Magical knight exam

In all honesty, the original Adam would actually try his damn hardest to stay away from that place, he knew that he would die and be sure as hell would not want to get involved with all of the troublesome shit that accompanied Asta

With that being said now that Adam has Father's curiosity going towards there is only a natural thing, he just hopes that the curiosity doesn't kill the homunculi

"Uh well if you plan to go anywhere like that then good luck. The exam should be that way, in **** city although I don't know how that will turn out for you considering you don't have a Grimoire." Said the man as he pointed at a direction, honestly, even he himself isn't really sure where the exam is at, he is just a poor villager he never concerned himself with where the exam is held at but even he held contempt towards Adam who seems to want to take the exam while having neither clothes nor a Grimoire

"Thanks!" Adam cheerfully thanked the man for all that he has done for him after all not only has he pointed Adam in the direction he wants to go he also gave him all of his belongings

Give? Oh yes indeed he has done that, can't you hear those screams of joy as Adam uses alchemy to kill the guy by extracting and storing his soul

That is what Adam plans to do for his journey, he will travel and if he comes across a village or settlement he will extract the souls of the inhabitants and take all of their possessions, these philosophers stones won't make themselves

After killing the peasant Adam stripped his body and took all of his clothes which he then resized with the help of alchemy making it so that they fit him

As for the horses and the carriage, Adam transmuted the carriage into a smaller one giving him more mobility and speed, and that smaller carriage was going to be pulled by those horses

Of course, by making the carriage smaller there remained some leftover elements like wood and iron parts and that peasant's body, which was very handy for Adam since he used transmutation to turn all of those elements into weapons for himself, specifically creating a steel spear and 2 cutlasses with scabbards which he attached to his hips

He had to use the carbon from the peasant's body so that he creates steel from the iron which he used for the blades of the spear and cutlasses, while he used the wood for a shaft and 2 handles as well as the scabbards which were then reinforced with iron

As for the rest of the items Adam just made many smaller weapons like daggers or throwing knives, and he made some armor for his body

With that, Adam had basically used up all of the elements and materials available to him so he hopped into the carriage and spurred the horses onward while he himself took a nap