AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Chapter 115: Alchemist’s pragmatism

Year 3, Spring, Third Month, Fourth Week.

Karl walked through the tunnel calmly inspecting the Arrays in the walls while talking to Diana about the upcoming journey. The girl, or better saying the woman (she was now 18 years old), was initially annoyed with Karls focus on the drawings while they talked. However, she calmed down once he didnt fail to identify any of her conversation traps. The irritation soon transformed into curiosity, what was he checking and how could he still pay attention to her?

Karls reaction to her question dispersed the rest of her anger while earning a giggle from the huntress, apparently, he didnt even notice he was checking the drawings until she pointed it out. The scene of the confused and offended Karl asking for Diana to stop laughing brought smiles to everyone around them. What both Councilors didnt know was that the diffused focus was a consequence of Karls spiritual growth. Since they left Caiset, the boys energy pool almost doubled, and now he was diving into an area of study few could handle. All of these factors were slowly changing his spiritual energy, though he was oblivious of the change.

Hahaha OK, OK. Im gonna stop But seriously, what were you looking for?

Hmm I didnt have time to check on the tunnels Arrays. Of course, I know the Arrays because I designed them, but I wanted to check the disciples progress. Mother says they did better than we expected

Yeah I understand. Things have been progressing so fast that we sometimes lose track of whats happening. I used to train every hunter. I knew everyones abilities and shortcomings, but now I hardly know whos in what team and what theyre doing We grew were not villagers anymore, so we need to trust them too, its no longer just on our shoulders

Youre right I just need to let mom handle the disciples, she has been doing a fantastic job Shes my mother, but I never expected she would grow into the job so much Please dont tell her that...

Im sorry, Karl I just realized I never said it before. You know, because I didnt tell you about grandpa and the others

Its OK D, it wasnt just your story In the end, everything worked it out.

Soon, the pair arrived at a cave room where the evening meal was being served. Even before the tunnel was completed, everyone had already moved in. It was easier than moving resources and people every day, and the tunnel offered more protection against rain and wind. As for being outside and breathing the clear forest air, they would be soon doing it through the entire day.

Fortunately, even with two thousand visitors, the tunnel was far from being crowded, after all, they had 14 kilometers of the tunnel to chose from. Most didnt notice but this facility could be considered a big village.

***

The small crowd didnt miss any of Karls movements, which made the Alchemist very uncomfortable. He was used to attracting peoples attention when testing the tools, but this was by far, his most crude design and was likely to fail. As an Alchemist he didnt mind failing dozens of times before getting it right, it was all part of the process, but although others claimed to understand this, they clearly didnt, the fear and expectation were stamped on their faces.

First, he would need to test the effect that could control the density of wood. Karl walked to a big tree trunk resting on the ground and placed the tool over it. Before activating the Array, he positioned his hand over one of the activators to select an effect, then he powered the tool. The energy glow quickly traveled through the design until it was transferred to the trunk. It shined intensively as the wood stretched, sounds of wood bending and breaking could be heard as the color of trunk changed from dark brown to a light brown, then amber.

Over everyones shocked silence, Karl walked along the stretched trunk counting his steps. When he reached the end, he turned around and said:

Approximately 30 meters, it grew 24 meters

Before they could recover from the shock, Karl was already repeating the test with a tree trunk three meters longer than the first one. Again, everyone was speechless, but the Alchemist didnt stop and used the effect in another trunk.

Hmm The second one grew 37 meters and the third 46 meters Its practically growing by a factor of four Alfeur, can you test the first samples resistance and flexibility?

When Alfeur moved, the spectators finally came to their senses and started to talk about how Karl was a genius, only Johann pretended to be unsurprised. Unfortunately, they would soon start to doubt his abilities. Alfeur tested the flexibility of the trunk, slightly bending it in a few places before nodding satisfied, then he forced the trunk to check its resistance, but it barely held before breaking. A concerned look appeared on everybodys face, as Karl predicted, they didnt have the inventors pragmatism for the long process of testing and improving.

Now, Karl would test the second effect, from which he didnt expect much, after all, he didnt comprehend the effect enough to fully use it. He brought the two remaining samples together and pressed the tool against them after selecting another effect. The samples shined and the usual sound of wood manipulation appeared, but this time, the samples started to strangely merge. The fibers and internal structures of the trunks seemed to overlap and tangle until they become a single trunk, slightly thicker and visibly darker than before.

Now, even Karl was surprised, he expected that the trunks would break or crumble, but it actually worked. Hiding his own surprise, Karl urged Alfeur to repeat the tests.

This Its much stronger and its still flexible

The man couldnt hide his delight, he was probably considering dozens of other applications for the tool. Karl had to remind him to keep putting pressure to find the samples limit. In the end, the wood trunk was still fragile, but if they could repeat the merging process another three or four times, it would be stronger enough to hold weight.

Finally, it was time for the last test. All of the previous tests would help them a lot, but the last would decide if they could build the bridge. Karl asked the help of three strong crafters to raise an unmodified tree trunk and keep it still. He placed the tool on the wood and looked up to the trunk tip before powering the tool with two effects activated at the same time.

The trunk shined and started to stretch towards the sky, but soon, everybody noticed it was also bending to one side to point that it stopped stretching upwards and was forming an arch before stretching downwards. However, before the trunk could stretch all the way to the ground it stopped, forming an unfinished arch. At this point, nobody dared to be disappointed, somehow they all knew that it would only be a matter of adjustment.