"The world is made of elements!" Edgewell coughed lightly and began his lecture, "The origin of all things in the world is all kinds of different elements. There are 109 elements that we know about. ”

"Elements are not just a concept, but tiny particles, very tiny, you can't see them. We also call these particles 'atoms'. Atoms are made up of protons and electrons, and protons are ...... "I knew that alchemy was a profound and wonderful science, but I never thought that it would be so profound." As time went on, Old Man Edgwell's teachings showed no sign of ending, but continued towards an astonishing mystical state.

The reason why I say it is "mysterious" is because he speaks the simplest lingua franca, and I know every word in it, but when they are connected in such permutations, I don't understand it at all:

“…… The two atoms form a conservation of charge, which produces a chemical reaction...... Positive and negative prices need to be balanced...... The discovery of catalysts is...... isotopes are formed...... Mass spectrometry behavior ...... Decay...... Radioactive transition...... Fusion and fission ...... Critical Mass ...... Chain reaction...... Illustrate...... Isotope uranium-235...... Protons and neutrons after explosion...... Matter is indestructible...... Conservation of energy......"

I guess I'm the first person willing to listen to him say that much. It wasn't that I didn't want to interrupt him, but I didn't have the opportunity to do so—the academic madman danced and spat at the mention of the great subtleties of alchemy, and became completely uncontrollably excited. When I was deeply remorseful that I had traded a lot of money and time for his ramblings, he finally ended his sermon with a question that made me cry without tears:

“…… Do you understand all this? ”

I think I can only understand two things from his words: first, he is a madman, and only a madman can take these nonsense as profound and profound as the book of heaven as the truth known to all, and think that others are as crazy as he is, and they can fully understand it by listening to it once; Second, I'm an idiot who spent so much money to get into this frustration education......

"I ...... Can I ......?" I originally wanted to say, "Can I drop out of school?" It suddenly occurred to me that it would not be a good idea to learn to cook or fish, and perhaps I had untapped potential in those areas—at least to be sure, in alchemy.

"It is good to understand, the door of truth and science is always open for you......" The supreme divine testimony, before I finished my words, Edgwell unjustifiably and arbitrarily acquiesced in my love for "truth and science". As his words fell, a purple aura rose around me. Looking at my personal attributes, there is already an extra word "Alchemist, Level 1" after my name.

At this time, I had mixed feelings and wanted to cry without tears. There are countless thoughts swirling in my mind, and one of the clearest and strongest is:

"I'm afraid he won't refund me the tuition ......"

After abduction, blackmail, fraud, and other evil means to draw me into the ranks of alchemists, Edgwell finally did not leave me alone. He took out a few pieces of worn-out scrap paper from his body and threw them in front of me:

"I've got some recipes here that you can try to do. When your skills improve, you can come back to me and I will give you something useful. Some of the ingredients on the recipe can be purchased from me, or you can use my equipment to experiment......"

I trembled and asked him about the prices of the raw materials for the experiments, but the answer I received made me faint. Things like charcoal, ore, cobwebs, and bat eyes used to be sold to grocery stores in bundles for dozens of copper plates, and here it costs a few or even a dozen silver coins to buy one, and even things like "rat droppings" are marked with the price of three silver coins—supposedly the "catalyst" necessary for some alchemy.

Originally, I thought that the sky-high tuition fee of close to two gold coins was enough to satisfy the greed for money of the alchemy teacher in front of me. Now it seems that I have only just taken the first step in burning money. The days ahead are still very long, and I'm afraid that even if I guard a mountain of gold, I won't be able to fill the additional investment in this life skill.

Those involved in the air are absolutely right: education, that is definitely a profiteering industry!

I searched for the recipes in my hand one by one, looking at their ingredient lists against what little I had left. At this time, you will find that money is never enough. I rummaged through all the recipes and found that I could only afford all the ingredients for one of them.

One part of sulphur, two parts of saltpeter, three parts of charcoal, it cost me thirty silver coins to buy them, and I was plunged into a state of near abject poverty. Following the recipe instructions, I crushed the items into a powder mixture, sifted out the impurities in between, and heated them in a large container on Edgewell's strange magic oven.

I eagerly awaited my first alchemy – and I hoped that the high tuition fee would be worth it. It was only at this time that I suddenly remembered that I had only been thinking about the price of the ingredients and the thickness of the money bag, and it seemed that I had been ignoring what I was refining.

I re-flipped through the recipe and found that at the top of the recipe, there was a line of text written in beautiful handwriting:

"Huoyao, which burns quickly and regularly under the action of high temperatures, produces a violent explosion, is a necessary component of firearms and ammunition......"

Well? Wait a minute! I seem to have forgotten something......

High temperature? Explode!?

...... on the stove

Fire yao!??

"Boom!" An earth-shattering bang erupted from the container in front of me, and a dazzling red light and blazing flames steamed up before my eyes, drowning me in a cacophony of light in an instant. I just felt like I was suddenly wrapped in something, I couldn't see or hear, and I couldn't even breathe.

When I was too embarrassed to escape, my magic diary wasted no time in delivering a message to me:

"Huo yao refining is successful, skill proficiency +10."

At the same time, another familiar stream of heat flowed through my body from the inside out. Because of this "unexpected success" of alchemy, I gained another two hundred points of experience, which immediately allowed me to rise to level ten.

This is really a windfall that makes people laugh and cry.

When the smoke cleared, I found myself unscathed—no, that's not accurate—like my alchemy teacher who always liked to make explosions, and now I was scorched, with my hair standing on end, and I looked like I had been in the aftermath of the catastrophe.

At this moment the old man Edgwell turned back and said to me what he had often said in his nonchalant tone, as if mockingly:

"Don't worry, it's just a small accident."

I don't think it's a "small" accident at all!

……

At great risk to my life, I took my first steps to become an alchemist - but only as a first step, and the money I had was not enough to support me in my second alchemy experiment.

Fortunately, I know that many alchemy ingredients can be collected in the wild, which means that I don't have to be exploited by unscrupulous alchemy teachers all the time. Many times I could even find some alchemical consumables on the beast's body - I never understood why a goat would carry a lump of ointment with him, or a hare that carried a handful of soot with him everywhere. Since going through the alchemical recipe in my hand, I realized that these clean-loving herbivores probably wanted to try making two bars of soap themselves......

I think of the abandoned mine in the west of the city that is infested with large bats. Those bats seem to have a penchant for collecting ores, and there are many things used in alchemy. And I remember the last time I went to collect quartzite jade alone, I didn't finish exploring the cave, so I think I can probably go a little deeper now.

It's not a wise decision to go into a dangerous underground cavern alone, and I feel the need to find a traveling companion with you. Opening my magical adventure journal, I found that my minotaur friend, the terrifyingly good-looking Ox Million, had arrived in the world - his name took up almost an entire page of me. I thought about it for a moment and sent him a magical message:

"Do you have time? I know there's an underground mine, why don't you go and see it? ”

Soon, I received a reply from him:

"Wait for me at the city gate, I'll be there soon!"

Standing at the gates, I saw my minotaur friend from a distance, and his unusually tall physique made him stand out even from the crowd outside Campunavia. I thought he was going to the appointment alone, but it wasn't until he was less than ten paces away that I realized that he had a companion with him.

That's a little man. Maybe you can't have an exact idea of his height just by saying that, but if I make a simple comparison, you will have a perceptual understanding: if we compare the height of Niu Million to a long sword, then the height of that person is about the same as a small dagger. He wasn't even knee-high enough for a million, and if it weren't for the name of the bright grass-green soul imprint floating around his head, I'm afraid I wouldn't have found him until they came to him. Walking with Niu Million, who seriously lacks a sense of balance, it is difficult not to worry that he will be accidentally trampled on the head by the burly minotaur next to him.

I think you should have understood that this little guy with a small stature and a cute baby face is a dwarf. Compared to their distant relatives, the dwarves, the dwarves were even shorter. Most of them also live in underground caverns in the highlands, and in general, they are mostly gentle and kind people, with an amazing pair of dexterous hands, capable of creating intricate machines that are unimaginable to ordinary people. But if you despise them because of this, and think that they are weak and deceitful, you are very wrong.

Clever gnomes have a natural affinity for magic, and can quickly master the esoteric magic that ordinary people would normally have to study for many years. And their diminutive stature and ambidextrous athleticism make it easy for them to dodge attacks with all your might, and a dagger-wielded, stealthy, sneak-up gnome wanderer is definitely one of the toughest opponents you'll ever meet.

However, this dwarf is neither a magician nor a wanderer. He was dressed in an unfitted khaki tights, with a gray cloak wrapped around his back, a peaked cape almost taller than his body, and a dagger at his waist.

The most obvious feature of his body is the small and delicate shamisen that he carries behind his back. This instrument revealed to me who he was: he was a bard.

Even if you don't look at his attire, just by looking at his name, you can clearly understand that this is a wanderer who loves music and art. He has a romantic and artistic name - "Nocturne in B flat minor".

"Hey, buddy, I thought I wouldn't see you today." As soon as he saw me, Niu Million grinned and screamed. He pointed to his dwarf friend next to him and said to me, "This is a friend I just met, and we have been leveling up in the mountains just now. As soon as you call me, I will bring him with you. ”

"Hello." The bard greeted me warmly. He seemed to be very interested in my name, and after looking at it twice, he couldn't help but say to me:

"Jefflitz Kidd. Your name is strange, I didn't expect anyone to take such a name. ”

"My name? What's wrong? "His words left me a little confused. In fact, although he was the first person to say this about my name, I don't think there are many people who feel the same way as him. People I know, including Niu Million, who are around us, don't seem to be used to calling me by my first name, and prefer to use "buddy", "buddy", "dude", as if my name is awkward.

Actually, I'm a little confused about this. In the past few days, I have seen all kinds of strange names. The names of those who have been involved in the airborne are completely different from the names I am familiar with, but no one seems to be surprised. Even a name like Niu Million that looks like a ghost crying wolf will only attract a momentary sideways glance at best, and walking among this group of adventure-loving and wandering time travelers with such a name on my head is extremely eye-catching. Why is this happening?

"It's nothing, probably because it's so much like a person's name, so it feels very abnormal." The dwarf bard replied playfully, squeezing his eyes at Niu Million, eliciting a knowing smile. Although their appearances were very different, their smiles looked so similar, and there was something faint about them that I couldn't comprehend. It made me feel a little embarrassed.

"Just kidding, don't mind......" As if sensing my embarrassment, the bard patted me on the ass in a friendly way—I guess he intended to pat me on the shoulder, but it was a bit more difficult to do so—and he looked at the crowd around him and suggested to me, "...... Where's that mine? Let's go now......"