After so many days doing this, that, and the other thing, I finally decided to tackle a problem that I’d put off for a long time.
“Okay, everyone. Today, we will finally start classes to learn the technique for making golems.”
“All right!”
“I’m ready.”
My students and I were in the great hall of the main tower.
I placed a bench in front of me and sat on it. Three students who were formerly sorcerer-soldiers-in-training were in front of me, responding cheerfully. Log was a young boy with black hair and a sturdy build, Daya was a blonde girl with stern eyes, and Tel was a timid boy with brown hair.
All three looked excited to be there.
They used to be in the sorcerer-soldier training center, which was basically a facility for human experimentation belonging to the Sorcerers’ Guild. Through several twists and turns, they’d become my wards. According to my agreement with the Sorcerers’ Guild at that time, I was obliged to teach them the techniques for creating a golem.
Clara was also there in the back row. I tended to forget, but one of the reasons she was loaned to me by the Sorcerers’ Guild was to train in golem-making or other wizardly techniques.
Cooperating with the students and the Sorcerers’ Guild to produce golems for various cities was an important job. They were meant to serve as supplementary anti-daemon forces.
However, Log and the others had already been in the castle for nearly two months, and their training hadn’t progressed one bit. It wasn’t that I was putting it off, though. In order to learn how to read A Primer for Alchemists and learn the fundamentals of alchemy for making golems, I’d asked the warrior-priest Torrad to teach them to read and write.
Naturally, this sort of alchemy wasn’t the same as the precursor to chemistry that existed in the world I came from. It was actually more like a fake chemistry system for creating magic items, which my perfectionist game master and I had made up. We’d based it on some materials we’d checked out from the library during our student days.
Our worldbuilding had turned into an actual technique that exerted real effects in this world, all thanks to the power of the Watcher.
“Now then. Let’s start by opening your textbooks to, umm…page three.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Hey, your head’s in the way.”
I only had a single copy of A Primer for Alchemists, which I’d given them in advance. It was spread open on the long desk where the three of them were seated. Behind them, Clara peered over their shoulders. I started the explanation I had prepared the night before.
“Golems, and indeed potions, are nothing more than products of alchemy. I want you to think of alchemy as a technique that reproduces the magic that we wizards train our souls to channel, but through physical rather than metaphysical means.”
The hall was quiet.
This general explanation part was probably boring for the kids. Clara, on the other hand, kept glancing from me to the book, looking very interested.
“So, what is the nature of my magic? Your sorcery is a technique for putting the magical forces that exist in the natural world and inside of you to work. Conversely, wizardry is a technique for harnessing the raw chaos that exists outside of this world to change reality itself. Incidentally, the tamed power of chaos is called ‘magical power,’ not to be confused with ‘mana.’”
“This world…” Maybe the world I’m from and this world were two separate realms born from the same sea of chaos?
Hmm?
That thought I just had… There’s something there… I got the feeling that I’d chanced upon something important.
The hall was still quiet.
“Ugh. I’m sorry, let’s continue.”
Going by the fundamental logic of alchemy, and consequently that of magical power, the entire real world and all visible matter was chaos that had temporarily taken solid form. In other words, if you could control chaos, you could create all matter that existed in the world, and maybe even matter that didn’t normally exist.
However, human beings, as material existences, could not typically touch or even recognize the chaotic essence of matter. That was only possible for wizards, who could make their own will slip into the realm of chaos.
In alchemy, chaos was a kind of proto-matter, an ethereal progenitor substance that could become anything.
It materialized through the following steps:
Chaos
Ether
Element
Material
Chaos was formless, everything and nothing. Ether was pure energy that didn’t have any specific properties. Elemental essence referred to energy with the properties of earth, water, fire, or wind. Then, by mixing and combining multiple elements, matter that actually existed in the world was formed. (Now that I thought about it, it was confusing to use actual scientific terms to try and encapsulate such a fantastical phenomenon…)
“Margilus?”
“Don’t mind me, I’m just pondering how best to explain it. In other words…an alchemist can process matter into its constituent parts. By extracting elemental and ethereal essences, and then using them as ingredients in items and potions, you can create magical effects that aren’t fathomable in everyday life.”
To put it simply, when the fire element was added to a sword, it created a magical, flaming sword. When the water element was added to normal medicine, it became a healing potion.
“Right. But…how exactly do you extract elements and ether from matter?” Clara asked, a bit flustered.
“Easy. Crush it, burn it, melt it, boil it… You need to work with extremely small amounts if you want the process to go well.”
I took several tools from my Infinity Bag and lined them up on the desk. The small tools included an alembic, flask, mortar, pitcher, alcohol lamp, file, and hammer. Some bigger tools included a distiller, strainer, brazier, and more. The long desk was now filled with tools.
“They look like an apothecary’s tools.”
“Yeah, they’re probably similar. The most important is the Smelting Furnace. I can’t take it out here, but I’ll show you another day.”
The Smelting Furnace was basically a heater. However, this was the only tool that had been enchanted in advance, making it a vital magical tool. The furnaces themselves had to be about as tall as a child, so I planned to ask Valbo or the carpenter Zech to build a dedicated alchemy lab later.
“For now, until the laboratory is built, read your textbook and learn how each of these tools are used.”
“Okay!”