The Alchemist Fellowship

The Alchemist Fellowship was neither unfamiliar nor entirely new to Ian.

The Alchemist Fellowship had a branch in Storm Cape. Ian had earned the branch leader Greenholm's approval and become an Alchemist.

Ian was a noble with a claim to inherit, so he hadn't joined the branch as a full-time Alchemist. Most of the time, he meditated and trained inside the castle.

Ian had heard of the Alchemist Fellowship branch in Paradise Port long ago. It had been established the year after Paradise Island was discovered, and in terms of scale, it was second only to the headquarters on the Eastern Continent.

The Alchemist Fellowship in Paradise Port was also the most unusual Extraordinary Association Ian had ever seen: both shabby and extravagant!

The Fellowship wasn't anywhere near Central Avenue. From Paradise Port, head east along an ordinary gravel road for more than twenty kilometers, and you'd find a vast circular plaza.

This was the Alchemist Fellowship!

There were no impressive gates, no clean flagstone paths, and no grand buildings—just a plaza and six squat towers scattered around it.

The plaza was quite large, a hexagon three kilometers in diameter, but it was undeniably "roughly" built.

Aside from a few winding "paths," the rest was overgrown with weeds. There were no sculptures, let alone fountains.

The six squat towers stood at the plaza's six corners. They were hexagonal, too, but only two stories tall, dark and inconspicuous.

Ian walked around the plaza and discovered it had been built according to an Alchemy Array. The "paths" across the plaza were the array's markings, drawn with silvery-white spiritual materials.

Ian crouched to examine them closely and confirmed that silver made up the bulk of the silvery-white material. The brighter silver lines were the famous alchemical product mithril!

Mithril was also known as "true silver." Light as a feather and hard as dragon scales, it could transmit Extraordinary energy smoothly without any loss. It was an extremely rare spiritual material.

But mithril wasn't a natural metal. It was a strange enchanted product, made by refining an alchemical stone inscribed with a high-level Alchemy Array and consuming large quantities of rare materials.

In the Fifth Epoch, High Sequence Extraordinary beings had become legends. No one could make alchemical stones like these anymore, and with the constant losses, very few remained. It was easy to imagine how precious mithril was.

Ian touched the mithril markings. His expression remained calm, but inside, he couldn't stop exclaiming, Holy crap! The Alchemist Fellowship looked shabby, but it was actually loaded.

But when Ian entered the Alchemist Fellowship through one of the squat towers, he realized he'd still been too naive.

Each squat tower was actually a massive Wizard Tower, only inverted. The two stories visible aboveground were just the top; there were seven more stories below!

The two aboveground floors of the Wizard Tower were open to the public. The tower Ian entered was the closest to Paradise Port. It was called the First Wizard Tower, also known as the Tower of Potionology, and had been built by the master of Potionology, Andymion.

The person who greeted him at the entrance was an apprentice from the Wizard Tower, but not an Extraordinary being. When Ian said he was an unregistered Alchemist, the apprentice didn't seem particularly surprised.

"Please wait here."

On the Wizard Tower's third floor, the apprentice showed Ian into a room and then left on his own.

The room was fairly large, but aside from a table and chairs and the light overhead, it was completely bare.

Fortunately, it wasn't long before Ian sensed someone approaching.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I'm Selk, and I handle registrations. Please come with me..."

The man was scruffy and unkempt, and spoke quickly. As soon as he finished, he started walking out.

Ian had been about to greet him, but seeing this, he could only give a wry smile and hurry after him.

Selk's spirituality was pure and lively. Ian sensed no hostility from him; he was simply like that by nature.

They were in a room with a gigantic crystal ball.

"Name?"

"Trist."

"Age?"

"..."

Selk kept working as he and Ian exchanged questions and answers. He quickly recorded the information in a parchment ledger that shimmered with spiritual energy.

"All right. Next, leave your spiritual signature on the mana crystal ball. You'll need spiritual authentication to enter and leave the Wizard Tower. If you can't enter an area, it means you don't have the clearance."

Ian had already gone through the same process in Storm Cape, so he knew the drill.

The crystal ball and parchment ledger were special pieces of Magic Equipment made by the Alchemist Fellowship. They authenticated an Extraordinary being's spiritual signature and related information, and could instantly sync it across thousands of kilometers.

Everyone's spiritual signature was different. Once registered, it was unique.

This was what worried Ian most, since his predecessor had already registered before.

But the Alchemist Fellowship was the most reliable source of Extraordinary knowledge he could access at the moment. He had to give it a try.

The newly launched battleship had given Ian more confidence. Even if he was exposed, he wasn't afraid. He'd face them head-on!

Ian placed both hands on the crystal ball. His spirituality instantly grew lively, and powerful spiritual fluctuations surged through the room.

The crystal ball's surface began to flicker. This wasn't what had happened when Ian registered his spiritual signature in Storm Cape, and his heart began to beat faster.

But the outcome Ian feared didn't occur. Once the crystal ball finished recording his spiritual signature, everything returned to normal.

Ian let out a quiet breath. His expression didn't change, though he was still a little puzzled.

He wasn't naive enough to think the Alchemist Fellowship's equipment had malfunctioned. Ian wondered whether crossing over had changed his predecessor's spiritual signature.

Thinking of how much finer and steadier his spirituality had become, Ian felt it wasn't impossible.

After completing the registration without a hitch, Selk told Ian to find an apprentice and learn about the Fellowship's rules, then hurried off.

That suited Ian just fine. He already knew the Fellowship's basic rules quite well.

Knowledge related to the Alchemist Sequence's ninth rank was free. Starting from rank eight, learning came at a cost determined by the value of the knowledge.

Basic knowledge about Magic Equipment and alchemical products was free, such as identifying properties and recognizing materials. Recipes and refining methods, however, cost money.

The Alchemist Fellowship used a special contribution system. Contribution points could be used to purchase knowledge, potions, equipment, materials, and more.

Many of the things that required contribution points were quite precious and hard to come by elsewhere, so those points were extremely valuable.

There were many ways to earn contribution points, but the most common was trading knowledge. That's right—the Fellowship didn't care about money. It wanted knowledge!

Not just Extraordinary knowledge or forbidden knowledge, but alchemical experience, insights, even ordinary knowledge—as long as the Fellowship considered it valuable.

The recipe for Enchanted Weapon Oil that Ian had learned had been acquired by exchanging all kinds of knowledge accumulated by his family, and even then, they'd barely managed it.

Ian had, of course, come prepared.

He planned to offer his experience and insights on refining Enchanted Weapon Oil, what he did best.

His special spiritual signature let Ian perceive every detail of the refining process. His book of experience would probably improve the success rate and quality of many Alchemists' work by quite a bit.

As for how much it would help—well, wasn't there a saying? "A teacher can show you the door, but success depends on you."