《Peerless Alchemist》
Prologue (Editing)
Alchemy, a medieval chemical science and speculative philosophy aiming to achieve the transmutation of the base metals into gold, the discovery of a universal cure for disease, and the discovery of a means of indefinitely prolonging life.
The ancient metaphysical mystical art of manipulating and altering matter by using natural energy. This act is known as "Transmutation" and its sequence is usually described as:
- Comprehension - Understanding the inherent structure and properties of the atomic or molecular makeup of a particular material to be transmuted, including the flow and balance of potential and kinetic energy within.
- Deconstruction - Using energy to break down the physical structure of the identified material into a more malleable state so as to be easily reshaped into a new form.
- Reconstruction - Continuing the flow of energy so as to reform the material into a new shape.
There are many paths by which alchemists can transmute the various substances of the world, with some alchemists being said to transmute by way of the Four Classical Elements (Water, Earth, Fire and Air) and some by way of the Three Essential Principles (salt, sulfur and mercury). The proper application of this craft requires not only a full understanding of chemistry and ancient alchemical theory, but also a sort of natural talent towards recognizing and manipulating the physical objects with energy, which require uncommon levels of intelligence and aptitude.
Those remarkable individuals capable of studying and practicing alchemy are known as "Alchemists".
Ash Freylord was also one of them, a young boy who recently arrived at the alchemist town called Taejin.
He became a genius at the age of 10, becoming the youngest boy in the world succeeding in chantless transmutation circles.
But let''s take a look into what really happened 4 years ago¡
* * * * *
In a desert with dunes and yellow sand everywhere, a town has been settled in the middle of this endless desert.
Every time the high winds blow, the ever-present sands would slowly envelope the entire region in a yellow veil.
The environment near the town is extremely harsh and demon beasts would appear from time to time, making the region very dangerous.
The people living inside the town was starving from hunger due to the non-existent foods inside the village.
Fortunately for them, the recent invades from demon beasts were their news foods supplies but even so, most of them died once a week from hunger.
Inside that poor and deserted town was living Ash Freylord, a young boy aged of 6 years old. He survived through heavens and hell but today he could no longer resisted.
It has been already more than a month that he still didn¡¯t ate anything.
It was already a miracle for him to survive until now without any foods and only a gourd of water keeping him alive.
Ash was an orphan.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Almost all of his families died because of the famine happening a year ago, only his younger sister still remained alive... He tried to survive through the famine chasing after weakdemon beasts outside the town.
Once a week he may get smalls demon beasts called wild desert boars and let her sister eat the whole baby boar while eating only a tiny bit to save the meat.
One day, while hunting a wild desert boar he fell in a trap and became surrounded by wild desert boars.
Even though it was only boars, he knows those demon beasts more than anyone else, thus, he knows that today, he may won''t return to his dear sister who''s still waiting for him tonight.
The hunger from the malnutrition he had make his body heavier and understanding his own situation, he could only sigh.
Ash only learned hunting a year ago, and his combat skills weren''t that bad, unfortunatelyfor him, there were too much boars to handle alone.
Only god knows how but he managedkilled most of them, and escaped with heavy injuries.
His body were covered by boars'' bloods and you could see hole everywhere and bleedings all over his body.
Fortunatelyenough, boars don''t tend to chase after someone who''s as dangerous Ashwho was wildly throwing spears at them, thus, they retreat after that half of them died from his hand.
It was only after that no boar longer followed him... In the end,he lied down in a place not far from the town andafterthat he noticed that it was already night time, he set a camp.
Looking at the beautiful scenery from the night sky, he closed his eyes and memories of his parents come into his mind.
He missed his parents'' loves.
The arrogant stories from his father, the shining smiles of his mother, the warmth of a family... He remembered the first time they arrived in the town until now and with complicated feelings inside his heart, he fall asleep without noticing.
In the next morning, the brightlight from the sunrise woke him up as he noticed that he had fallen asleep outside the town.
Hopefully, Ash used a special wood impregnated with a scent that demon beasts hated otherwise, he could have died from a night attackwith all the wounds he had.
He slowly woke up and bandaged himself, thenheaded back to the place where he killed the boars who surrounded him.
Ashtook out a knife and dismantled the boars since he couldn¡¯t do it yesterday.But right after he finished dismantling the boars, cracks on the ground appeared from nowhere and huge noises could be heard from far away.
*clack* *clack* *clack*
Noticing the severalcracks on the ground next to him, he directed his vision to the eastwhere the huge soundswere coming from, a hugesmoke screen could be seen and soldiers figures slowly appeared in his vision.
A huge army was coming from the east, the flag that was showing a dark blue background and two crossed rapiers.
Ash stared at the flag and remembered the Imperial army.
They were soldiers from the Imperial City which was situated 300 km from the east.
It was his parents'' hometown.
He couldn''t remember the vague memories from his childhood in the capital but he still remembers every time his father would boast around about being a commander from the Imperial army.
Noticing that the Imperial army was marching towards the town, he decided to headed back and inform everyone about it.
"Ash! You actually finallycame back!Your sister was worried about you since you didn''t return yesterday and we were all looking for you. We thought about exploring outside the town looking for you!"
Noticing the littlefigure approaching at the town''s entrance, thetown representativespoke.
"Yes, I''m sorry for worrying you guys. I had some trouble during the hunt yesterdaybut I''m alright now... more important than that, I saw the Imperial army heading towards the city! Maybe they finally came to help us!"
"Really?! Is that true? They finally come to save us! Our time waiting here did not go to waste... What a relief! We can finally leave this deserted town!"
A year ago, Ash''s parents actually send a help message to the Imperial capital, unfortunately, the Imperial capital didn''t take into consideration seriously andabandoned the town, thus, most of the villagers were finally regaining hopes hearing Ash''s announcement.
For the first time, the villagers inside the town were motivated and prepared a hastyceremony to welcome the Imperial army.
Once the Imperial army arrived at the town''s entrance, a man wave his hand to stop the army from advancing and stepped forwards.
The men were 1.82 cm tall and was wearing an eye-patch.
He was wearing a hood hiding his head and with his muscular building, he looks like hewas a veteran, the typicalstrong looking guy you find in the army...and with a serious tone ask.
"Where is Jorge Freylord? I''ll let you 30 seconds to talk."
Chapter 1 : Imperial army (No Edited)
The town''s representative became tense hearing the commander, he recalled Jorge Freylord''srequest sending troops last yearand stepped forwards.
"Sir, Jorge Freylord unfortunately died the day after the famine happened in the town a year ago... He''s no longer alive, the same goes for her wife, Amelia Freylord."
The commander scratch his head and walked next to one of his subordinate.They whispered each other and walk next to the town''s representative while ordering.
"You guys wait here! You, guide me to his grave."
The town''s representative bowed and guide him to Jorge and Amelia''s graves.
Once they arrived in front of the graves, a young girl was praying in front of Jorge and Amelia''s graves.
Noticing the soundbehind her, the young girl turned around and look at the commander.She was startled by the tall and huge commander and stepped back. Noticing the girl who looks exactly like Amelia, the commander frown his eyebrows and asked.
"You are...?"
The town''s representative was anxious, the storieshe heard about the Imperial army wasn''t ajoke.
They were people which bad temper and could kill anyone outside the Imperial City without caring.
They were hated by most of the people outside the Imperial City andit was common between commoners to always listen to them and never angered them otherwise, the whole family could be executed without any reasons.
He tried to find something to save the young girl but nothing came, he hurriedly explained the truth to the commander trying to not anger him.
"She''s Jorge''s and Amelia''s daughter. She comes every morning to pray in their graves, please have some mercy for her."
The commander was slightly surprised by the town''s representative''s last words and with a sigh said.
"I''ll let her go only after looking that she didn''t stole what we were looking for."
Upon hearing that, the town''s representative became worried about the young girl but couldn''t do anything, he could only take her next to him and blocked her from fleeing.
The commander looked at Jorge''s graves and suddenly started to dig a hole looking for Jorge''s corpse.
The moment he took away Jorge''s corpse, he took a badge from Jorge''s corpse and burnt his body.
Infuriating by the commander''s actions, Ashe who was watching from the side couldn''t hold his resentments any longer and shouted while running to the commander.
"What the hell are you doing in front of my father''s grave!"
The commander who noticed the shout from the boy, turned around and blocked his light punch. He looked at the boy and with a surprised expression said.
"You... are you Ash? Ash Freylord?"
Ash who heard the commander''s words was taken aback. ''How did he knows my name?'' Glaring at the commander, Ash stepped back while pushing away the commander''s arm and asked while being cautious of the commander.
"How do you know my name?"
The commander smirked and explained to Ash with nostalgic.
"Your looks are exactly the same as Jorge when he was young, even your character is the same! Did you forget about me? I still remember you while you was that little."A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Ash couldn''t remember his childhood inside the Imperial city, thus, he didn''t said anything but only glance at the commander with disbelieving eyes.
"You still don''t trust me do you?"
Of course he couldn¡¯t.
In Ash''s perspective, this guys literallystole something from his father and even burnt his body! How in the world he could even trust that kind of guy?
"How can I trust someone who just burned my father''s body in front of my eyes? You even stole something from him! Give me back!"
The commander could only scratch his head. He never expected to see Jorge''s son still alive.
In his mind, the whole family already died long ago, that''s also the reason why he was sent by the Imperial family to take back the Alchemist badge from Jorge.
The alchemist badge was something given by the alchemist associationand was a precious item. It was an item for identify himself as alchemist and the materials creating it were few.
But for some reasons, the badges could only be recognized by nobles or soldiers, thus, commoners or villagers who saw the badge didn''t knew what the badge really means.
After finally reorganizing his thought, the commander decided to finally told Ash about his father.
"I take this badge from your father. The badge means that he was an alchemist, you must have heard this words somewhere did you?"
Alchemist, it was something that Ash couldn''t believe.
His father never showed any alchemist sorcery and he never saw an alchemist with his own eyes, but he definitely heard about it.
Before the famine happened in the town, an adventurer group came for sightseeing and he remembered their doubtful stories about alchemist.
It was an existence that could use sorcery that was way stronger than magic.
It was the only things that Ash knows about alchemist.
Ash wasn''t the kind of stupid boy to believe everything from adults, even more when the stories seems unrealistic.
He could only looked at the commander with doubting eyes and after noticing that the commander also had the same badge on his chest, Ash decided to test him.
"So if you really are an alchemist like my father, you should be able to use alchemy? Show it to me."
If not for the rules, the commander would have never showed his alchemist abilityto a young child but since he was the son of his best friend, he could only sighed and break the rules.
The annoyed face of the commander could be seen, making the villagers became anxious about what was going to happens.
The sands under his foots suddenly started to tremble.A magic circle appeared suddenly appeared under his footsand the sands surrounding him started floating.In both of his hands, a fire ignited burning both of his hands.
The commander was wearing white gloves, but the gloves didn¡¯t seems to burn, Ash was shocked upon seeing alchemyfor the first time.
''Alchemy really did exist.''
The villagers who watched the scene was utterly shocked by the sudden magic circle appearing under the commander''s foots.
After watching the commander''s magic and his expression while burning the death''s body, they definitely not want to anger this commander.
Ash never thought he''ll be able to see alchemy with his own eyes one day. But interested Ash was the little coloured light balls surroundings his hands.
Noticing that Ashe was blankly staring at his hands, the commander cancelled his magic circle and asked.
"Are you convinced now?"
Seeing Ash nodding, he finally realized that he lost too much times talking to Ash and forget that he needed to return to the Imperial city.
He looked at Ash and explained."Since I finished what I needed to do, I''ll be leaving." Then he looked at the young girl and with a smile said.
"I''m sorry for scaring you young girl... you can go now."
Hearing the words of the commander, the town''s representative''s anxiousness finally faded as he released the young girl.
The young girl who was watching Ash with worries finally run towards Ash hiding behind him.
Looking closer to the young girl, some familiarities could be seen between her and Amelia which make the commander startled.
After his curiosityrose anymore he decided to ask Ash.
"This young girl... she''s your sister?"
Ash who was still hesitantly wondering to tell him or not could only nodded.
"I see, that''s why she recalled me Amelia when I first saw her. Anyway let''s move to the Imperial City. I can''t leave both of you guys alone here."
The last mission given to the commander was to guide the survivors of the deserted town in the Imperial City.
The queen regretted leaving her best friend dying in the deserted town when the famine happened, but since she was also a concubine and not the official queen, she couldn''t help them until now.
The commander was someone close to her, thus, he knows how much she regretted letting her friend dying.
Now that he knows that her daughter and son are still alive, there is no way he could let them alone there.
With the survivors, the Imperial army with a total of 200 soldiers and 20 survivors left the deserted town and head towards the Imperial city.