My First Skill

I was surprised to hear the words that just came out of this woman's mouth. Who in this day and age would call someone a Master? It just seemed so archaic. My Master saw my face and seemed to read my mind.

"Don't worry is just a title you aren't mah slave; I will, however, work you hard for you to earn your education as an alchemist." I gulped nervously, the way she said that didn't sit well with me, and I wondered exactly what type of work, and even what I would be learning. "Now, what's your name, thick boy?" She asked me. I shook myself out of my thoughts and responded.

"I'm Todd, Todd-Sheargin." Master looked at me blankly for a second.

"Todd?" I nodded. "Oh well, no accounting for taste, I suppose, now follow me." She quickly swept passed me and exited the room, I followed just a second after her, and she led me down a short hallway and into a room to the left. The room filled itself with glass vials and containers holding all types of strange ingredients and different colored liquids. On the floor were more strange-looking circles drawn in chalk, and bookshelves were lining every wall.

"Now, Todd?" I focused back on my new Master. "Do you know the first thing about alchemy?" I shook my head fervently. "Alchemy is the process of change in this world; through alchemy, we can make potions that can heal the sick, or start a plague. We create new inventions to help or destroy humanity." She had my attention stuck to her words at this point.

"We use a mixture of scientific measurements, along with the magic in this world, to change the shape of things around us." As if to demonstrate, she went over to one of the circles on the floor. She grabbed something small out of one of the ingredient jars and placed it in the middle of the ring. She then placed her hands over the ring and whispered something that I couldn't understand. There was a flash of light, which made me turn my head to shield my eyes, but when I turned back, I was shocked at what I saw.

In the middle of the small circle, there was now standing a little glowing red flower just growing out of the stone floor. Master plucked it quickly and came over to hand it to me.

"Crush it between yer hands." I did as she asked, and a feeling of warmth spread across my body. I looked up at her, and she just nodded. "It's one of my favorites, especially during winter. But do you now see how valuable this skill could be to an adventurer party's survival?" This moment is the first time that Master looked happy in front of me. She looked expectantly at me, waiting for a response.

"Yes, Master, I've never seen anything like it." The woman beamed at me.

"Good, so then are ye ready to take yer first step to become an alchemist?" 'Do I have to?' I thought to myself, but again as if reading my mind, she continued. "Not that you have much of a choice since you chose the job." She continued smiling at me. I took a deep breath and told her that I was ready. 'I have to learn something, I guess, but why couldn't I have gotten something simple like archer, or assassin? I hate science.'

"Good! Then I'm going ta teach ye yer first skill as an alchemist." I bucked up a little and prepared myself for a long lecture on my first skill. "Yer going to learn, Displace Dirt." I blinked a couple of times in confusion, but then Master handed me a small spade. "Go dig a hole." She smiled, and I just stood there for a second. "Well, go on, Todd, the thick boy!" She shooed me out of the room, down the hallway, and out the door slamming it behind me and leaving me alone outside the small cottage again.

I looked back at the door, then down at the spade in my hand. "Dig a hole?" I whispered to myself. I rolled my eyes before beginning my walk towards the forest. 'I thought I was supposed to be learning alchemy, not digging 101.' I couldn't help from feeling down on myself; I should have pulled myself together faster back at the tavern. I could have at least gotten something useful as an adventurer. The most I'd seen of alchemy so far was the ability to make a pocket warmer. 'How is that or digging holes supposed to help me fight monsters and make money?'

I had walked about 50 feet into the forest at this point and came to a small clearing. 'Good a place as any to dig a hole, I guess.' I kneeled on the ground, trying not to get my new clothes too dirty because I didn't have a washing machine here. 'Do they even have washing machines in this world?' I thought to myself as I pulled out my spade. Sighing, I half-heartedly dug the small shovel into the ground, but the strangest thing happened when I did it, instead of the shovel sinking into the ground for me to pull the dirt out. Instead, the earth at the end of the shovel moved out of the way.

It reminded me of one of those kids' science experiments we did in elementary school to teach about water displacement. You'd fill a container with water almost to the top, then you'd drop something into it, and the water would rise and spill out the top. The same thing seemed to happen when I tried to dig into the dirt. I would touch the tip to the ground, and roughly an inch or two of soil would move away from the end, making the hole deeper.

I decided I'd try it at a different angle to make the hole wider. Sure enough, I came in from the side this time, and two inches of dirt was displaced away from the shovel. I played around with it for about thirty minutes before I heard a clanging sound. The shovel hit the earth hard and sunk in. I was confused. It had just been working, so why isn't it now? I tried it again and again but with the same result. The tool just sunk into the ground like a regular shovel. I decided to take it back to the Master and ask her about it. So I got up and dusted myself off. My attempts to stay clean had been utterly unsuccessful.

'I suppose that's what I get for playing around in the dirt, though.' I smiled wryly to myself. I walked briskly back out of the forest as I hadn't gone very far in. The red-headed woman was in the front yard, already waiting for me.

"Stopped working already, huh?" She smiled at me. "It's time fer yer lesson, then Todd." I was confused; I thought digging the hole was the lesson. "The spade I gave you is an alchemist tool, which means that it has unique properties that allow us to do our work more easily." She looked at me to make sure that I was paying attention and understanding what she was saying.

"Just like any tool, it can become dull and break if it's not taken care of properly." I nodded my head along in understanding. "I told you before that alchemy is a mixture of science and magic. The science part leads us to understand what the tool can be used for as well as what processes we have to go through to make it work how we want to make it work." Master could tell that I was still following along with her lecture.

"The magic part, however, is where we find the energy to get the tool to do those processes. This is a lesson that is going to help you in your studies throughout your entire career as an alchemist." I raised my hand to ask a question, and she nodded to me.

"I don't know how to use magic, though?" She let out a small laugh before she continued her explanation.

"That's ok; I will teach you. There are two types of magic in this world, internal magic that everyone has, and external magic that ye can find in every facet of the world." She took a natural pause again to make sure that I wasn't too confused, and she thought to herself that maybe this apprentice isn't as thick as she initially thought he was.

"Now alchemists have a minimal amount of magic within ourselves usually, so we use external magic gathered through ingredients and move it through precisely calculated channels in the form of magic circles. To activate a magic circle to bring in the type of magic to help with whatever yer working on, you need to know the formula for it, which usually comes in the form of a chant or word." She grabbed the spade from me and dug it into the ground. It still didn't do anything, though, but following right after that, she touched the spade and said a word.

"Direirix." The shovel had a circle carved into the hilt of it, which glowed for a short while before she said another word—"Stoperoc.," which made the glowing stop. I looked at her starting to get a little excited at the lesson.

"What did you do?" I asked inquisitively.

"I used the formula or word that was necessary to power this specific tool to do what I want it to; In this case, I want it to displace dirt. You can do this to just about any item to varying degrees; I just happened to have a spade." She pulled the shovel out of the ground and handed it to me. "You give it a try." She proceeded to teach me the word 'Direirix,' the word which in lamens terms meant 'move dirt' and 'Stoperoc,' which she explained would stop most alchemic processes just in case one got out of hand.

I did as I was instructed and dug the tool into the ground. I then touched the hilt, and after a couple of times practicing how to say the word correctly, the circle started to glow. After about two minutes, I stopped the process.

"Alright, let's see how the tool works?" I nodded and went to dig the spade back into the ground; as I did, the dirt moved out of the way again, just like when I had first used the tool. The woman nodded approvingly.

"Now then, that will be five copper pieces for the tool, ten for the clothes, and another five for the lesson. Ye can come back when you have my payment." I was dumbfounded.

"Payment master?" I questioned her.

"Yes, the payment I am teaching you a skill, am I not? I have provided ye with materials to get started, and I deserve proper compensation. It's up to ye if ye wish to continue learning or if ye want to be a layabout." I nodded my head quietly, thinking back to the barkeeper's words about people not helping for nothing in return. "Now it's getting late, so I recommend ye finding some of yer traveler friends and finding a place to rest together."

"What? Am I not staying here with you?" She frowned at me and shook her head.

"I am not yer mother; I am yer teacher. This is my home, and my workshop. I don't have room fer someone to live here. If I did, then my other apprentices would be around too. Now run along ye need to find somewhere before it gets dark." With that, she went back inside, and I was left to go back to the city. I had two problems, one was how I was going to earn money with the one skill I knew, and the other was finding a place to sleep.