The Alchemist Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The five of us stood against a dozen elves. The breeze wafted through the branches of the trees surrounding the clearing. The elves’ eyes glinted in the sunlight.

I took a step towards the leader. “We don’t want any trouble here,” I said. “We’re just establishing a mining claim.”

“So you’re here to steal from the earth,” said the leader of the elves. “Leave it to you humans to destroy forests and dig up our ancient graves in order to get at that filthy metal of yours.”

I shook my head. “No, it’s not that,” I said. “We’re …” How do I explain this? I thought. It would be hard to understand what my power does and why we’re going this far.

“Maybe we should just find another place?” asked Blasé.

Claude shook her head. “Too late. We can’t call Drex back, and by the time he returns the damage will be done. People will flock here to mine starsilver. We have to keep going. We’re committed.”

The elves parted. An old, decrepit elvish woman appeared out of the shadows.

“Ah, my fellows,” she said, her voice creaking. “We do not wish to condone conflict. Perhaps we can negotiate?” she tapped the elvish commander on the shoulder. He seemed to deflate.

“That’s what we were trying to do,” said Claude. “We offered a large amount of moon chrome to purchase this land.”

“Moon chrome may be my race’s favorite toy,” said the old elf, “But we have long distrusted the deals proposed to us by humans.”

“We promise this time that we will be honorable,” said Claude.

“Of course I believe you,” said the elder. “You are a descendent of Gabriel. Your word is iron, and we know that.” She turned to the rest of us. “As for you, we do not know your intentions.” She paused, seeming to think. “Well, perhaps we do.” She looked at the mine and the dirt that had been piled up. “You are here to extract this earth’s resources.”

“Not exactly,” I said. “There are no concentrations of valuable material here at this moment.”

The elder tilted her head. “Oh?” she said.

“We’re adding it ourselves,” said Blasé. “It’s so that we can launder starsilver.”

“Launder?” said the elder. “I have not heard that term in a very long time.”

“You know what it means?” said Blasé.

“Indeed,” said the elder. “I used to advise those young’uns in the elvish mafia about things like this.” She chuckled. “Though whether you believe me is up to you.”

“I believe you,” said Claude. “But what Blasé said is true. We’re going to implant a significant lode of starsilver here to artificially induce a starsilver rush.”

The elves chittered amongst themselves. The elder held up her hand. “Fifty percent,” she said.

“Of the starsilver?” said Claude.

“Of everything,” said the elder. “Fifty percent of the proceeds you get from selling land, starsilver, and any other money that flows through here.”

“Deal,” said Claude.

“Wait!” said Tanna. “Do you know how difficult this arrangement will be?”

Claude shook the elder’s hand. “I’m an angel. I don’t know anything about money. But what I do know is when we’re giving people a fair deal.”

The elder grinned. “I knew you would cooperate, daughter of Gabriel.” She took a piece of crumpled paper out of her pocket and straightened it out. “Fifty … percent,” she said, scribbling two words on the paper. She cut her finger, signed it in blood, and then handed it to Claude.

Claude cut her hand and signed it as well. “We have a deal, then,” she said.

The elder bowed. “I’ll be watching what you do. I know how to keep people from hiding things from me.” Then she and the rest of the elves backed away. “We’ll probably see each other much more often!” her voice said, as she faded into the shadows.

“Claude,” said Tanna. “You know that a fifty percent share is going to be a lot of money, right?”

“It is their land, after all,” said Claude. “It’s only just that we pay them for using it.”

Tanna sighed. “Sure. You’re the boss, after all.”

Claude put her hand on Tanna’s shoulder. “You should know that I have our best interests in mind. If we don’t have any money, we can’t fight the demon king.”

Tanna turned away. “Let’s get started, then.” She looked at me. “Can you begin the implantation process?”

I knelt down to the ground. “Yes,” I said. “The size of the lode is going to be about six hundred toms in all directions. That will include both banks of the nearby river.” I felt the existence of aluminum spreading beneath me, dispersed in particulate and combined with various other elements. First I purified it, and then I separated it into about ten thousand individual nuggets of varying sizes. The lode implantation was a success.

Blasé whistled. “That’s a hell of a lot of mana coming from you,” she said.

“Really?” I said. “I don’t feel any different.”

Blasé shook her head. “You’re a prodigy, that’s for sure.”

“Does everyone in your home world have powers like this?” asked Itrim.

“No,” I said. “Magic in this form doesn’t even exist where I come from.”

“And yet your people have managed to conquer the elements?” said Itrim.

“Through centuries of hard work and study,” I said. I stood up. “At any rate, I think this should be enough starsilver to sustain a full on mining boom for at least a year.” I turned to Claude. “You still have that half badger of starsilver?”

“I do,” said Claude, holding it out. She tossed it to Itrim, who placed it in his bag of holding.

The call of a griffon echoed through the forest.

“Looks like Drex is back,” said Claude.

Hypo landed in the middle of the clearing, and Drex hopped off. Drex was grinning, big.

“Mission success,” he said. “Everyone wanted to know where I got that starsilver. I told them I found it right here.” He scratched his neck. “There’s going to be a boom town here before the week is out.”

“Let’s get out of here,” said Claude. She turned to me. “We don’t have to extract our own starsilver from here directly, right?”

“Right,” I said. “This whole place is just a cover to allow us to sell it.”

“And with this, our financial troubles are over,” said Tanna. She climbed up onto Hypo, holding out her hand to me.

I grabbed it and she assisted me up. The five of us on Hypo, plus Claude, rose into the air, departing for the volcano base.

The wind whipped around me. I gripped Hypo’s neck with as much strength as I could muster.

I’m never going to get used to this! I thought.

I caught sight of a town on the horizon. Already I could see several wagons riding along the road to where we had implanted the starsilver lode.

“They aren’t wasting any time!” I yelled.

“Everyone wants to get rich!” said Drex. “I just tickled that part of their psyche!” He gave me a thumbs up.

We flew until we reached the volcano base. After landing, I climbed off Hypo and stood in the hangar. I picked up an old, work out spear and spun it a couple of times, and then I examined its construction. It looked like the shaft was bent. How much would that cost to fix?

Claude walked up to me. “That spear belonged to Belodias,” she said. “He died in the last incursion and this was all we could retrieve from him.”

I put the spear back. “Does all of this equipment have a story like this?”

“Most of it, yes,” said Claude. “The Guardians have a long and storied history. We’ve been protecting the world for centuries.”

“How powerful is the demon king?” I asked, as I touched a shield. I tried picking it up but could barely lift it.

“Powerful enough to destroy everything if he really wanted,” said Claude. “Luckily for us he only sends his minions out to do his bidding.”

“Convenient,” I said. I touched a dusty breast plate, leaving a streak. Rubbing my fingers together, I turned to Claude.

“Do you know what the demon king wants?” I asked.

Claude shook her head. “We do not,” she said. She paused. “You can make anything metal with your powers, right?”

“Anything at all,” I said. “It doesn’t even have to be metal.”

“There’s something I want you to do,” said Claude. “Now that we’ve secured our finances, I want to try opening an item shop in Brownfield.”

“Item shop?” I said.

“A specialty shop where people can come in and get exactly what they need to solve their problems,” said Claude.

“Um, okay?” I said. “What does this have to do with being the Guardians?”

“One of our missions is to help the individual man,” said Claude. “And I’ve been thinking about this since you got here. With your power, you can help hundreds of people with all sorts of things. I also know that you have knowledge that we cannot even fathom here in this world. I want to put your knowledge of your other world, combined with your alchemy power, to work in improving people’s lives.’

I nodded. “That sounds good. There’s several things I want to create right out of the gate.”

“Oh?” said Claude. “Like what?”

“A printing press, for one,” I said.

“Printing …” said Claude. “Never mind. I’ll see it when I see it.” She put her hand on my shoulder. “You can change the world with your knowledge and power. All we request is that you keep supplying us with starsilver. If you do that, we’ll handle all the technicalities, red tape, and negotiations with guilds.”

“Okay?” I said.

“Treat this as part of your official duty as a sworn Guardian,” said Claude. “Though you are new here, you have taken an oath to protect society and improve it through hard work.”

“Great,” I said. “I can make a living doing this. I am an engineering student, after all.”

“Also,” said Claude, “We’d love to learn more about this science stuff from you. It might be useful later on. I’ll set up some times where you can teach us.”

I nodded. “Sounds good,” I said. “When do I start?”

“As soon as we purchase a shop for you,” said Claude. She turned to Tanna.

“On it,” said Tanna. She grinned, and then hopped onto Hypo’s back. “I’ll just be gone a moment!”

Claude smiled. “Thus begins our new era,” she said.