Alcruid

Author's Note: This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real life figures are most likely co-incidence. 

In the kingdom of Lithen, there were few arch-mages. But those said arch-mages were capable of wiping out a dozen cities on their own. And the 3 of the current age, Alcruid was one of them. 

Like your typical sloppy genius mage, Alcruid had messy blond hair he never bothered to comb or style in any way what so ever. Contrasting his blond hair were his pair of regular brown eyes. 

He had passed the academy at the young age of 12 along with his rival, Lint. They had known each other since the first year at the academy. Both of ripe age, competing for the top spot at the academy. 

Like everyone else in the world, Alcruid was capable of using all elements. But his favorite was Water magic because of how flexible it was. In comparison, his rival had chosen to be a fire mage because of sheer power and flashiness. Of course all magic had the capability to reach the same heights of power but it was easier for some than others. Finding out the optimal way to use the magic was the difficult part.

One faithful day, as Alcruid was browsing the enormous library of the Royal Palace, he stumbled upon a book about alchemy. Not because he wandered into the wrong section but because some moron had put a book in the wrong section of the library.

This was one of the few books in the Library he hadn't read before. At least in that section. He had finished all but 28 of the thousands of books related to magic in the Palace's library. He probably could have counted the number of books given that was how much time he had. The appearance of an arch-mage was quite rare and caused much commotion. If he casually visited a store, the store could be under temporary suspicion of having committed high treason. 

Due to such restrictions placed upon his public appearance, he learnt spells to change his appearance and hide his manga. And often sneaked out but it wasn't really all that fun. 

There was once a moment where he had sneaked out and got scammed, he was tricked into overpaying for food. There was another moment where he was almost forced into joining a cult. Of course, he took 'care' of them. When he found out that he had overpaid, he returned to the shop-owner and threatened him to return the overpaid fraction. And did wipe out the cult which resulted in him getting another medal of bravery. Seeing that, Lint, one of the other 2 arch-mages began hunting for cults too. And Aria, the last of the arch-mages just did her usual thing.

He slid the book out of the bookshelf. And returned with it in hand to his usual place. On the rightmost table right beside the window. With a snap of his finger, the lanterns responded by lighting up. He was the only one there at the moment. Sometimes, he could also see the 2nd princess and the 4th prince or even the other 2 arch-mages. Considering that there were so few that used the giant library, it was weird that they had 6 large tables capable of seating 10 people each. 

He sat down, like a normal person would. He grabbed the chair, pulled it back, entered the seating area and pulled the chair towards him with his leg. And then, he placed the book down on the table and flipped it open.

There was no title, in fact, there was no cover page at all. The side of the cover was barely sticking onto the side of the book. He flipped it open. He didn't have a choice. He knew many recovery spells; ones that healed wounds, disinfected wounds, grew a limb, removed ailments but none that could recover pages. In fact he wasn't even sure if recovery magic could work on things besides humans. It could.

The book began and as such

-Alchemy is the transmutation system in which a material or product can be changed into something else of exact same value. But in order to do so, a catalyst and a price must be paid. A drop of blood can be transmuted to 3 gold coins but the value of a drop of blood is 5 gold coins. The reason you get 3 when you convert it is because part of it acts as a catalyst and part of it as the price to be paid. The price to be paid can only be life-force.

"No wonder alchemy users aren't all that popular." thought Alcruid to himself. But there was no doubt, it intrigued him. He continued reading the book. It showed various methods of transmuting, the upsides and downsides of each, the value of materials in terms of gold. 

"Time to give it a try." Alcruid said with confidence as high as the ceiling of the grand library he stood in. It was 15 times his height. He was by no means short. After all, he stood at an average of 5 foot and 11 inches without shoes being factored in.

He flipped through he books and saw a bunch of rare herbs and stuff. He wanted them. He decided to transmute item with the transmuting circle. He bit the tip of his thumb and created the circle as the book described on the library floor. He would normally be scolded for dirtying the library but that didn't cross his mind.

And so, he began transmuting a bunch of items. Ones he needed, ones he didn't and ones he just wanted to see. And eventually, he collapsed from loosing too much blood. He didn't quite realize that that could have happened. He used recovery magic to return his body to peak performance.

He had previously fainted from using too much blood but now there was something he wanted to try. Random Summon. And the reason he wanted to try it as fast as possible was because the more your lifespan decreased, the lesser the value of your blood. Blood could be reproduced by the body or by magic but lifespan couldn't.

Winds erupted from the edge of the circle, lightning sparkled and before his very eyes, laid a huge chunk of meat. It was the heart of a dragon. He was ecstatic. He had never seen one before and it wasn't a rare sight either. Dragons had gone extinct but here he had the heart of one. He opened his magic bag and stored it in it.

Feeling heavy killing intent, he teleported from his place to 5 steps forward. He turned back to see a black figure covered in black mist. It looked ominous. But he was the strongest of the current mankind. He couldn't go down without a fight. The figure was like that of a knight. It had armor, the full-plate mail kind. And its stature was just like one too.

The knight charged in again and swung his sword horizontally but once again, Alcruid had disappeared out of his sight. And before he could spot Alcruid again, Lightning struck him from behind. It was Alcruid. 

And thus, this went on for a while but after getting struck like that twice, the knight started catching on. And so, to finish things off. He teleported above the knight. And as the knight tried to find him, he created a sharp crescent blade of ice below him and stood on the broader edge that was facing him. 

And just like that, the knight was split in half. Walking away from the corpse, Alcruid dissolved the ice blade he had created and turned towards the corpse one final time but by then, it had begun to disintegrate. 

Now, he was at a loss of words. Some mysterious force is targeting him and they leave no traces at all. You could see the troubled look on his face. But despite all that, he went to bed like normal. Except he placed traps all around his bed. It would be bad if he died. He didn't want to die. No one likes dying. They just don't like being in a bad situation.