Incredible Alchemy

It was midnight. For the first time in a long while, Victor couldn't sleep. He rarely suffered from insomnia; the last time had been when he discovered he'd transmigrated into an alchemical world.

He didn't like drastic changes or losing control, but now he'd once again been forced out of his comfort zone.

As he went downstairs and passed the Alchemy Lab, he stopped. To his surprise, Vesemir was still awake, extracting plants.

The Witcher's keen senses couldn't miss the sound of his footsteps.

Without turning around, the Witcher asked, "Can't sleep, child?"

"Yes. I'm having some trouble adjusting to the new environment, so I came out for a walk. What about you... What potion are you making?"

"The Witcher's ancestral recipe for Vitality Decoction. It enhances the effects of physical training. You extract it a few hours in advance, and it works best when you drink it hot before you start training. It'll be part of your daily routine from now on."

Vesemir said it casually, but Victor knew a little about alchemy himself and understood that Vesemir was going out of his way for him. There was no other reason he would stay up late to prepare it.

"Thank you," he said.

Then he turned and went back to his room, lay down, and fell asleep.

The Vitality Decoction tasted surprisingly good, sweet like fruit juice. Vesemir told him they'd specially altered the recipe years ago for Ciri, the little monkey. Paired with Cave Fungus, it made a nutritious breakfast specially for Witcher trainees.

Training began on the "Path," a trail that wound around the old castle of Kaer Morhen and was filled with obstacles. Witchers often practiced running and breath control there.

To Victor, it was a medieval version of an obstacle course. It was great for training "running," "jumping," "crawling on all fours," "climbing," and "balance." Its glaring flaw was that the safety measures were medieval too—there weren't any.

Besides, although Vesemir had introduced it as the "Path," according to the books, young Witchers had given it another name: "Killer's Trail."

Vesemir ran alongside him the entire way. He was so considerate that Victor felt a little embarrassed, wondering if it was too cruel to make a grandpa hundreds of years old run and leap around like this. But he soon learned that an old hand was still an old hand. Even when Victor was so exhausted he could barely breathe, Vesemir was still as fit as ever.

After resting, they moved on to basic swordsmanship. The practice swords at Kaer Morhen resembled European longswords: two-handed swords with long crossguards.

But he didn't touch a sword at all during his first lesson. Until lunch, he practiced basic footwork: hands on his hips, feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, and one foot stepping forward, its toes pointed toward his opponent, while the back foot turned outward about 45 degrees.

According to Vesemir, this stance helped a person stay balanced in every direction. He had to master the footwork first; otherwise, holding a sword would only get in the way.

After lunch, ordinary Witcher trainees would take a short break and then resume training. At Victor's request, however, Vesemir set aside three hours that afternoon for him to read in the library. After that, they continued training until sunset.

By the time he'd eaten dinner, Victor felt utterly exhausted. After washing the dishes, he went straight upstairs, collapsed onto the bed, and fell into a deep sleep.

After making sure he was tucked in, Vesemir left the guest room with a smile.

Vesemir had found that day's training rather interesting. The boy lacked technique, but his physique was in excellent shape, and his character was surprisingly tenacious. On the "Path," he'd been so out of breath he could barely walk, yet he hadn't stopped. It was the same with sword practice: even when he'd run out of strength and was swaying on his feet, he'd kept going until the lesson was over.

But tenacity was something that had to be tested. A child raised in peacetime would probably ask for more breaks after a week, Vesemir thought.

A month later, Vesemir admitted he'd underestimated the boy's potential. He was a commoner's genius.

On the "Path," he hadn't made any astonishing progress, but he'd steadily gotten faster. Now he could complete his daily training without Vesemir following along.

As for swordsmanship, he'd mastered the Plough Stance and was now practicing the Ox Stance. His progress was neither fast nor slow.

The same was true of his studies. In his hundreds of years of life, Vesemir had taught countless little hellions. Some had photographic memories; some could read ten lines at a glance; some could draw inferences from one example. But he'd rarely seen anyone read with Victor's concentration and composure.

After dinner one evening, Vesemir expected another peaceful night. But instead of heading straight to the library, Victor came to him of his own accord to ask for help.

"I need to apologize to you first, Vesemir." That was how Victor began. "There are some other secrets I haven't told you."

Seeing the earnestness in his blue eyes, Vesemir chuckled warmly. "Child, trust doesn't happen all at once. You don't need to apologize to me. I understand completely, and I haven't taken it to heart.

"But I'm glad you're willing to trust me more now. So, what is it you want to tell me?"

"I'm an alchemy apprentice."

"Mm... I know that. So?"

"After comparing what I've learned with the books I've read over the past month, I've confirmed that the alchemy I practice is somewhat different from what this world understands as alchemy. Or rather, the difference is fundamental..."

Vesemir raised one eyebrow.

"Going by the meaning of the words, what I've learned shouldn't be called alchemy. It should be called Incredible Alchemy. And I want to see if I can demonstrate it in this world!"

In the Alchemy Lab, Vesemir handed Victor the main ingredient for the Vitality Decoction, a European Potato Apple. He watched as Victor tossed it without hesitation into the cauldron of boiling water.

"The normal process of preparing alchemical potions involves some combination of extracting, grinding, mixing, fermenting, boiling, distilling, filtering, and blackening.

"But Incredible Alchemy is actually a method of using one's own mind as a point of reference and, through 'boiling,' combining the added ingredients on a 'conceptual' level.

"So all we need is a source of fire, a cauldron, a stirring rod, and enough water to cover all the ingredients.

"Looks a lot like making soup, doesn't it?

"It really isn't much different from making soup..."

As he spoke, Victor added the Long-leaf Plantain, White Crape Myrtle Petals, verbena, dandelion, Berberis Fruit, and other supplementary ingredients one after another.

Then he began to stir.

Green, white, red, yellow, blue, and reddish-brown herbs tumbled around the stirring rod. He stirred in no particular direction or rhythm, just as he pleased.

"When you stir, imagine the finished product you want. The more clearly you picture it, the faster it'll be done.

"For example, I'm making Witcher Vitality Decoction right now. I've been drinking it for a month, so I know exactly what it should do. I can also tell which ingredients are impurities, so I estimate it'll take about an hour.

"Just like this: toss in all the ingredients, then keep stirring... stirring..."

By this point, Vesemir was already tempted to call a halt.

The European Potato Apple was fine, but there was far too much Long-leaf Plantain and too few White Crape Myrtle Petals. The Ghost Needle Mushroom only needed its cap, and only the roots of the dandelion should be used, but Victor had thrown in the whole plants. He'd even put the Berberis Fruit in without cracking its hard shell.

But then Vesemir hesitated. The boy had been so composed over the past month that he'd hardly seemed like a child. Surely he knew what he was doing.

...Fine... Even if he was playing a prank, the worst they'd lose was some ingredients. With that thought, Vesemir decided to keep an open mind and let him carry on.

And so an hour passed. Vesemir watched as Victor stirred away in the dim Alchemy Lab, humming a brisk, bizarre tune from another world. Amid the repeated "la la la, Demacia" lyrics, he stirred the chaotic mess until it turned a shit-yellow color and gave off a pungent odor.

Then a sudden burst of rainbow light flashed from the cauldron, glaring into his silver-gray cat eyes and leaving him stunned.

At the time, he had no idea that a moment's inattention would make him an indispensable background figure in textbooks centuries later.

The rainbow light shone dazzlingly in the dim Alchemy Lab. At that moment, as the first person in history to witness Incredible Alchemy, the Witcher Vesemir couldn't help but fall to his knees before the cauldron, speechless before this incredible miracle.

The Sage of Kindling, who had brought about such a great miracle, smiled saintly. "Want to learn? I'll teach you."

Those words ushered in the age of modern alchemy. It was a moment history had to remember...

Excerpt from—Behold! Incredible Alchemy!