Learning the Dimensional Gate

Hikaru once again became the top scorer in this round of the test.

Although the absence of an alchemy class had narrowed the score gap between Hikaru and the other students, since his practical duel happened to be against Bastion, his score still firmly surpassed Bastion's.

"Hmph, hmph, hmph! See that, Dax? As long as I'm still at this academy, there can only be one top student, and that's me!"

"Where did you even learn to talk like that?" After the exam, the group of friends gathered in the classroom to check the results. Seeing Hikaru's perfect score glowing on the screen, Bastion felt a rush of blood to the head.

"Don't take it too hard, Ogre! You'll definitely win next time!" Jaden patted his shoulder heartily to comfort him.

"I don't need pity from the guy who nearly placed last!" Bastion clenched his fists. "And why are you calling me 'Ogre' now, just like Hikaru?!"

"Don't you think 'Ogre' sounds cool?" Jaden laughed. "Just like how Lightning is still Lightning."

"No, definitely not. That's dumb."

"Bastion!"

The two of them got into a scuffle, while the others laughed around them.

Although later in the original, they all drifted away from the main plot for various reasons, outside of the story, their personalities were actually quite good, and they could joke around together.

They all had similar goals, and attending classes together was still a joy.

Outside of this, Hikaru had many personal matters to attend to.

On one hand, the Fullmetalfoes Alkahest had recently produced a new item, and he had finally managed to create a card representing his "normal state". Unfortunately, that card couldn't be used in most worlds.

Pendulum Monsters simply didn't work in this world.

So the card could only be kept as a collector's piece.

On the other hand, Hikaru also had to dedicate time to studying the "Emerald Book" left behind by Professor Banner, the book which was Hikaru's most important textbook for learning alchemy, even containing references to worlds that Professor Banner had traveled through.

So, if Hikaru wanted to meet him again, he would need to solve the riddles within the book and find that so-called "Realm of the Spellcasters."

Of course, the very first thing he needed to master was:

Building an interdimensional teleportation gate.

Relying solely on the school's dimensional gate was far too slow, and next time, it might not even take him where he wanted to go. From every angle, creating his own portal to travel to a desired dimension was a far more efficient choice.

Therefore, lately, Hikaru's primary focus has been building a teleportation gate.

And today was the day he planned to unlock his first "key gate" and uncover its secrets.

"Mmm."

Tierra floated nearby with a cup of instant noodles, eating quietly so as not to disturb Hikaru's experiment.

Right then, Hikaru was assembling metals into a specific shape and attempting to ignite and place them inside a container.

Boom!

As with previous attempts, Hikaru's setup exploded. Fortunately, Captain Crystal was there to shield him, so the flames and debris didn't reach him.

"Strange, I followed the steps in the book exactly." Hikaru flipped open the book and frowned.

Tierra didn't understand mortal techniques. Seeing Hikaru fail again, she simply slurped her noodles, treating it like a relaxing break.

"Maybe it's insufficient spirit energy?" Captain Crystal suggested.

"That's possible, but I asked Tierra to help. Based on her power, the constructed energy should be more than enough. There's no reason it should fail."

Hikaru's own spirit energy might be lacking, even so, Tierra's definitely wasn't anywhere near that.

Even without being revived, Tierra's current body held significant status within the "Shaddoll Tribe" of the spirit world. Her spirit level shouldn't be low.

Nonetheless, that's just how alchemy is.

Even if your actions match the book step for step, all kinds of unexpected things can happen.

After all, it's more of a mystic art than a science.

"Could it be energy interference?" After watching two more failed attempts, Tierra threw her empty noodle cup into the trash and said, "Your own energy might be conflicting with the alchemy lab's power."

"Conflict? No way, the Philosopher's Stone and Super Polymerization shouldn't clash, right?"

The Philosopher's Stone was a universal energy source and panacea, while Super Polymerization was a transcendent force that fused anything together. From any perspective, they were of the same nature.

"Then, maybe it's not a conflict, but suppression instead?"

'Suppression? That could be it.'

Following this line of thought, Hikaru grabbed a calculator and began punching in numbers rapidly.

At the same time, he called to the Fullmetalfoes Alkahest, "Alkahest, help me remeasure the materials. Increase the total quantity by 1.5 times, but for iron and silver, only by 1.2."

"Got it."

The human and spirit resumed the experiment, placing the materials into the container to ignite slowly.

This time.

There was no explosion!

Hikaru looked thrilled, and Alkahest was visibly excited too.

They had successfully learned alchemy from another world!

After a green glow faded, Hikaru carefully used tongs to extract a strange, broken ring from the container. The ring, like an incomplete ouroboros, floated a mysterious point within its interior, one of the special alchemical symbols frequently used by Professor Banner!

"Looks like the first step is complete."

"Thanks, Tierra." Hikaru wiped sweat from his forehead.

Tierra might not understand alchemy, that said, as a divine being, her perspective far exceeded his. At the right moments, she could offer insights that helped him break through.

"Hmph! This is divine favor! You need only accept it reverently. I don't need your thanks~" Tierra spread her arms and radiated divine light, eyes closed as she delivered her divine proclamation.

Unfortunately, her rare display of godly demeanor went unnoticed by Hikaru, who was already engrossed in building the "idiot-proof interdimensional teleportation gate" described in the book.

Seeing that Hikaru wasn't responding, Tierra peeked with one eye, saw the duo tinkering again, and resignedly lowered her arms. She poured hot water into another cup of noodles.

'Oh well, there's still plenty of time.'