The Dragon-Obsessed Alchemist 2

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“…Come in.”

Winny opened the door, her blue eyes sparkling with excitement beneath her thick robe and fluffy bangs.

Upon entering her study, Doyun glanced around the interior.

Amidst piles of books covering the floor and walls, he caught a glimpse of familiar content scribbled across the scattered notes on her desk.

Having some proficiency in alchemy himself, Doyun could recognize it as research related to transmutation.

Winny-Kaisk. While she was a master alchemist versed in all fields, her main specialty was said to be transmutation.

‘Transmutation, huh…’

Seeing traces of transmutation research caused Doyun’s heart to sink as he recalled the little transmutation friend who had regressed alongside him in his previous life.

‘I wanted to forget about him as much as possible until I could meet him again…’

But it seemed even the slightest trigger immediately invaded his mind.

A wave of nostalgia more intense than ever rippled through Doyun’s heart.

“So, but… where did you even get that? From the Dragon Lord? Are, are you really friends with the Dragon Lord? If you’re really friends, then… did the Dragon Lord also give you that Dragon Heart in your body? Is that even possible for a human? Hey, could you cooperate with a few experiments? Hm?”

Doyun ended his reverie and turned to face Winny’s barrage of rapid-fire questions.

She was looking at him with dark-circled, greedy eyes brimming with desire.

But it wasn’t a dirty greed for treasures or wealth – it was a pure obsession driven by the pursuit of truth.

“What I showed you earlier were a total of six cores, and there’s one more at a higher level, but broken.”

The six were the cores of the guardian golems that had driven Leona’s team into the cave, while the broken one belonged to the guardian ogre Doyun had dealt with.

“Uh, uhhh…! You, you bas… 6, 6 cores…! No… but it’s broken! How the fuck did you damage something so precious… Ah, no… sorry for cursing…”

Winny drooled as she spoke.

She had momentarily reacted with shock upon hearing the core was broken, as if she had become a different person. But she soon closed her mouth, realizing the core was still in Doyun’s possession.

Despite her seemingly timid appearance, it seemed her personality underwent a drastic shift when it came to alchemy.

As a transmutation specialist, her ultimate goal was to recreate the perfect, divine-like existence akin to dragons through transmutation.

Hence, dragon cores were the greatest treasure and vital clue for her.

Dragons, the divine beasts called the mothers of magic. Even for Winny, their cores were items she could scarcely even attempt to replicate.

‘I truly understood their value after receiving the Dragon Heart.’

The cores created by dragons resembled the Dragon Heart in nature.

Unlike regular cores that mimicked steam engines or thermal power plants with their magic arrays, a dragon’s core was more akin to a nuclear fusion reactor.

And the gap between them was so vast that mere insects could never hope to catch up.

As someone obsessed with dragons, Winny would undoubtedly know this as well.

“But… did you come here to sell those to me? Good thinking! I’m really, really rich! I can afford any price! No, if my wealth isn’t enough, I’ll borrow from the king…”

“The cores are a contract deposit.”

“Hm?”

Winny’s eyes widened in a daze at Doyun’s unexpected remark.

“I’ve come at the request of the Vagabond Hero.”

“Ah, ah… ah…”

Those words brought a look of sudden disappointment to Winny’s eyes.

Doyun found her reaction puzzling.

‘Why is she disappointed? Could it be that this isn’t enough as a deposit for the commission?’

He mentally adjusted his plan slightly.

“…Two cores as the contract deposit. Upon completing the commission, I’ll give you the remaining four and the higher-level core. And also…”

Ignoring Winny’s shock, Doyun opened his nebula’s sub-space and retrieved an old notebook.

Seeing this, complex runic patterns surfaced in Winny’s pupils once more – the markings of an analysis spell.

“Right! That sub-space magic of yours, what is it?! It’s not human magic, is it?! Could, could the Dragon Lord have given that to you too…!”

“Yes. She gifted it to me.”

“You, you really are… really friends with the Dragon Lord! Uhh, uhhh…!”

The thoroughly excited Winny made strange noises as she shivered like she had wet herself.

Regardless, Doyun held out the notebook to her.

“Take a look.”

“Hm…?”

Tilting her head, Winny accepted the notebook. But upon seeing the first page, her face froze.

Instead of any text, each page had a single magic array inscribed on it.

A memorial magic for recording information – in other words, this notebook itself was akin to an entire library.

It contained a compilation of various elixir analyses, handling methods, consumption instructions, effects, and more, meticulously recorded by Enoch’s head alchemist specifically for him in his elixir storehouse.

Winny’s pupils interacted with the notebook’s memorial magic as the arrays surfaced. With each page she flipped, her pupils dilated further with concentration and shock until she finally returned to the first page, fixating on it as if entranced.

And at that very moment when she seemed to grasp the notebook’s value and become utterly infatuated with it…

Doyun swiftly snatched the notebook away.

“Uhh, uhhh…! Gi, give it back…! You fucking bastard! Give it back!!”

“…It was originally mine.”

The most effective way to handle a genius – make them obsess over you.

Winny-Kaisk, the continent’s greatest alchemist and ever-mercurial character, had become utterly infatuated with Doyun.

“Wh, what is that thing? Who left behind such insane records?! It must be from a dragon! Definitely a dragon’s possession!”

Inwardly delighted by her immense praise of his colleague, Doyun replied,

“It was something from Enoch Razvolnic’s legacy.”

“Ah…! The original head alchemist of the guild…! Th, that’s right. You did say you unearthed his legacy…”

Winny shivered, her body trembling.

Unlike Winny, who was well-versed in all fields, the alchemists of Enoch’s guild had never attained the Master Alchemist title.

However, she was renowned as the goddess of elixirs.

At least when it came to elixirs, she was an unparalleled genius in the continent’s history without equal. Even the Essence of Life Formation was a product of her genius.

And both then and now, elixirology was considered the most valuable and practical field in alchemy.

These were records painstakingly left behind by that very woman for the man she loved.

If made public, it would completely upend the entire alchemical world.

“Se, sell that to me. Hm? I’m really rich…”

“As I mentioned earlier, this isn’t for sale but a commission reward.”

“Ah, this fucking…”

She cursed again.

Doyun inwardly wondered, ‘Why is she reacting like this? Shouldn’t she just accept the commission?’

“You’re talking about it? The commission requested by the Alliance is so outrageous in content!”

“…Is that so?”

“Handling the ‘Sun’ is beyond the realm of humans. That was an elixir that only existed in legends…! Of course, being able to handle such a thing before I die would be an immense honor and incredibly fascinating as an alchemist, but…”

Winny spoke with utmost seriousness.

“This goes beyond mere interest; it’s a matter of possibility versus impossibility. I don’t accept impossible commissions.”

“The Sun…!”

Doyun’s eyes widened in shock at her response, which far exceeded his expectations.

Was the ‘Sun’ really an existing elixir? And it had manifested in this world?

“Huh… why are you so surprised? Didn’t you come knowing about this?”

“…No. I only received the Vagabond Hero’s request to persuade you. I’m separate from the Alliance.”

Upon hearing that, Winny’s pupils contracted sharply. She bit her lip as sweat trickled down.

“……Keep, keep this a secret. If it gets out that I revealed this, I’ll be executed…”

“But what exactly do they intend to use it for? Who’s going to consume it?”

“No, you fucking idiot, I’ll be executed if I reveal it!”

“…”

For now, Doyun set aside his suspicions and continued the conversation.

“Are you really certain it’s impossible? What if you refer to that journal as the contract deposit?”

“Of course, the notebook would be a great help, considering it’s her records. But the problem isn’t that – it’s the lack of a material potent enough to subdue the Sun’s overwhelming power.”

“Hmm…”

Being knowledgeable in alchemy himself, Doyun understood what she meant.

The highest-grade natural elixirs were so potent that a ‘subduing’ process was necessary before consumption to diminish their power.

And it seemed the Sun was such an outrageously potent elixir that no material existed to subdue it.

“If you really insist, bring me a few drops of the Dragon Lord’s blood and I’ll check.”

A dragon’s blood was considered the ultimate material for subduing elixirs due to the dense life force and anti-magic properties flowing within it.

“But… according to our master’s records, even dragon’s blood would be impossible for the Sun. The Dragon Lord’s blood might be different, but I’m still skeptical.”

Winny spoke with a nuance of ‘bring it if you can,’ as if dismissing it.

The Dragon Lord’s blood was also an extraordinarily precious material on par with supreme treasures. From her perspective, it would have been more efficient to deceive Doyun with something like ‘That would definitely work!’ in order to obtain the Dragon Lord’s blood.

Yet she honestly stated that even the Dragon Lord’s blood might not be enough as a ‘material to handle the Sun,’ admitting it likely wouldn’t work.

Although she spoke rudely to her subordinate elder and pursued only her own interests with the commission, cursing indiscriminately, when it came to alchemy, she was sincerely serious.

Indeed, she was the very person the Alliance should entrust such a commission to.

‘So it really is impossible…’

Hearing her grave demeanor and explanation, Doyun let out a resigned sigh. Despite it being the Vagabond Hero’s request, it seemed there truly was no viable method – persuading her wasn’t the issue, but rather that it was an impossible task from the start. If not even a dragon’s blood would work, that said it all.

“…For now, I’ll try bringing some of the Dragon Lord’s blood. At least to verify with that… Ah.”

“Hm? What’s wrong?”

Just as they both seemed to have given up, an idea suddenly crossed Doyun’s mind.

‘Perhaps…’

Though lacking any solid basis and more akin to a blind shot in the dark, Doyun reached into his sub-space nonetheless.

A moment later, his hand emerged holding a thin test tube about a palm’s length.

It contained a red liquid.

“Could you quickly analyze this?”

“What is it? Blood? The Dragon Lord’s blood?”

Winny tilted her head quizzically upon casually receiving the test tube.

“The color doesn’t seem to be a dragon’s, though…”

“It’s roughly the blood of a divine beast similar to dragons. Let’s experiment with it.”

“If it doesn’t work with dragon’s blood… Well, more data is always good for me. Give me 10 minutes.”

Doyun sat in the study and waited as Winny descended to her workshop.

Not even three minutes later…

Thump thump thump thump!

“Winny! Please go down the stairs slowly! Your precious body might get hurt!”

After some commotion outside…

Bang-!

Winny flung the door open with enough force to nearly break it as she entered.

“Hah…! Hah…!”

With reddened eyes filled with excitement and tremors, she glared menacingly at Doyun.

“You, you…”

Her trembling finger pointed at the partially depleted liquid in the test tube.

“Th, this… where did you even get such an insane thing…!”

“Hmm…”

Doyun sensed that his hunch had been correct.

The red liquid he had given Winny…

Was the blood of Han Doyun, the greatest divine beast under the heavens.

(Please be sure to read today’s afterword.)

(Summary for those who missed the afterword:

Power balance adjustment.

Martial Saint’s skill level changed from 11 -> 10

Lion King’s mana level changed from 10 -> 9)