DubbAlina said no.

Even after I told them about everything, the system didn’t seem to care. Instead, if anything, the system became even ruder. It was as if they were annoyed.

“Well, fuck.” They muttered before turning silent.

The system hadn’t ever cursed before. I waited for it to continue on with another sentence, then realized that DubbAlina had decided to shut up after my explanation.

“Ahmad!” the elderly man called. There was a smile on his face as he entered the room. The design of his clothes had not changed since last time. They were still simple and white. I shook my wrists, and my bracelet let out a playful jangle as the gold pieces knocked into each other.

“You woke up later than usual.” the man said.

I stretched my body, letting it creak, then stood up. I was tall. I was even taller than the elderly man in front of me. I didn’t answer him. There was little to answer with.

“Sit down.” The elderly man gestured to a chair. There were several of them lying around, so I randomly picked a plain one and sat. He plopped a thick book into my lap. ‘The Booke of Alchemie.’ I read. Interesting. What was Alchemie, exactly?

Instead of pondering the issue, I opened the book. I cautiously turned the page. The book was filled with paintings of random materials. The first section showed plants. The second, animal parts, or so I guessed. The sections after that were various minerals, and the last section, I had no idea.  Every material had lines of explanations written next to it. They were descriptions of the materials; their qualities, appearances, and how to handle them.

“I’ll give you five days.” The elderly man said gruffly. I wondered what he meant by that. “Memorize.”

The man walked away.

I flipped through the book, casually reading it. It wasn’t a very difficult one, so I had no problem. An hour and a half later, I stood up and placed the book next to me on a table. That didn’t take long at all. I started to wander around. My eyes fell on the items on the tables.

There was a lot of jewelry, I noticed. There were also bags and sticks. Capes and weapons. But it wasn’t only that- there were also weirder things on the table.

I wanted to touch them. I wanted to take all the expensive-looking jewelry, and I wanted to practice with the weapons. But, I thought, that probably wouldn’t be a very good idea. I eyed a sharp, shiny dagger with a hilt inlaid with what seemed to be a massive green gem or stone. It was beautiful and powerful, and it looked menacing. 

Its only flaw might be that it was too flashy. Next to the dagger was its sheath, but that was even flashier. Forget drawing the weapon. If you carried one of those around, everyone miles around would notice you for sure. The shine was impossible to miss.

Spears rested on the wall, with a lustrous golden shine. I wondered whether they were made of gold or copper. Maybe they were fakes, even. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were. Gold spears were impractical. Those spears weren’t decorated fancily like the daggers were, but they were flashy all the same- rays of light bounced off of them like crystals.

Silver necklaces were everywhere. Most of the stuff seemed to have a stone embedded in it. I imagined the possibilities if I could just sell all this back on Earth. I sighed longingly. It was a pity.

Would it be okay to touch anything? I really wanted to, but again, I thought, you never knew what could happen. Grandma always warned me against touching any of her knives. I dropped one once, I remembered. It really hurt.

I shouldn’t. I really shouldn’t. I decided. It would be rash and stupid of me. Looking was enough.

Oooh! My eyes started to sparkle as I spotted something very interesting. It looked like a tiny mound of metal. Valves and pipes stuck out from the top part of the mound, as if the metal lump was a metal heart. Long gold strips traveled around it. They looked welded on.

I looked more closely at the object, noticing that the gold created lots and lots of patterns. There were words, too, but they were so small I couldn’t read them. My head was blank. I couldn’t think. My eyes opening wide, I touched the object carefully. The metal was warm, and appeared to move, like the fluttering chest of a baby bird.

I breathed in, feeling energy rush through my whole body. My hands moved up slowly, up the gorgeous patterns and gold lacings to where the valves were. It felt warm.

It was as if it were alive, I thought. A soft smile appeared on my face, though I didn’t notice it. My mind was too deep right now. I was feeling something I hadn’t ever felt before. The valve seemed to be stuck. All of them seemed to be stuck. I wondered what was inside it, then realized I didn’t have to. It was pure energy, I felt. I tugged on a valve, but it didn’t open easily. I took a deep breath.

One, two, three!

It happened all in a second. The contraption whizzed around as if it was a leaking balloon. Oh no, oh no. Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have touched that thing, I thought remorsefully as I ducked under a table as quickly as I could. I didn’t fit. Giving up on the rest of my body, I stuffed my head under there. Maybe my legs would cut and bleed, but I didn’t want to risk a concussion.

Was it over? The sound had stopped. I poked my head out of its hidey hole and stood up. The contraption was back on the ground. It was as if nothing had ever happened in the first place, except for the fact that the thing was ten feet away from where it should have been. Miraculously, nothing else had fallen or broken. Well, the spears were sagging, I noticed. And the shield on the wall seemed to have just the tiniest dent in it. And a corner of the ceiling was wet.

I walked over to the contraption and picked it up, much more warily this time. I put my hands over the one open valve, closed it, then jerked my fingers away. Ouch.

I stuck the fingers in my mouth. Hot. Well, at least the valve was closed now. I set the contraption back where it was supposed to be.

The door opened.

Who was it? I wondered. I was tense. Whatever the metal contraption was, it had made an awful racket, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if the elderly man from before had come back because of it. Maybe he would yell at me, I thought. I didn’t like being yelled at.

It wasn’t the elderly man. It was someone else. It was a boy.

I recognized the boy. It was the one from before.

His face was pleasant. He was smiling. I backed away from him. Smiling. Oh no, I thought guardedly. Smiles usually weren’t anything good. Like the elderly man, I noticed he was also wearing similar clothes from before. I looked at his ankles, fitted with shoes that looked like they were made from leather. They were pointy, and weren’t white, unlike the rest of his body.

I wondered how his ankle bracelet didn’t make any sound. It looked like it was the same type as mine. Maybe it was the way he walked. There was no abrupt movement, none at all. Instead of clinking against each other to make a large sound, the bracelet pieces touched each other gently.

“Ahmad!” he grinned.

Should I answer him? I wondered. Or should I stay silent? Staying silent seemed like the better option. I didn’t even know his name. I didn’t want to make a fool out of myself.

The boy didn’t seem to mind, and instead peeked over my shoulder to see ‘The Booke of Alchemie’. “You better start reading that.” He informed me. “It’s harder than you think, you know. And that book’s only for Beginner’s Alchemie- the first level.”

He turned the pages over. “I’ve already finished it, of course.” Was that a hint of pride in his voice? “I can help you memorize the stuff, if you’d like.”

I shook my head. “I’ve already done that.” I answered evenly.

The boy laughed, as if he didn’t believe me. Why didn’t anyone ever believe me, I wondered. “Even you can’t memorize a book in two hours, Ahmad.” he said. “Cousin, I never knew you were so into jokes.”

“Though,” he amended, “That book is so boring it’ll give anyone a sense of humor after a while.” He looked at me with his chin raised. He had to, because I was taller than him. “Anyway, it’s just my advice, but you better memorize it quickly. Grandpa’s always serious.”

He shoved the book into my hands, then studied the room as if he sensed something. He was good at that, I thought. I shuffled my feet nervously and almost fell over. The boy, now my cousin, frowned.

I placed the book down on the table again.

“Gotta go.” He muttered. He picked up a bucket in the corner, filled halfway with clear liquid. I had a feeling it wasn’t water, though. It didn’t sparkle- it was the opposite, in fact. Even in the light, it was dull.

As soon as he left, the elderly man walked into the room. He was my cousin’s grandpa, so by logic, he should be my grandpa too. He looked surprised to see me. He looked down at the book on the table, then back at me. He sighed. His eyes were gentle. Just like a kidnapper’s.

He didn’t say anything. I picked up the book and gave it back to him. He simply placed it back on the table.

“I finished.” I said. “Like you said.”

Grandpa took the book away. There was a notable surprise on his face. The corners of his eyes went up, and his mouth curved only a little.

“Then it seems we will have a great Alchemist in the family.” He said.

I agreed.

“Wait here.”

I waited as Grandpa left. He believed me. It was nice to see someone believing me for once. Even if there wasn’t any proof, he believed me. What an unsightly thought, to be happy for someone being unreasonable.

 It was understandable for people to doubt me. It was weird how I could instantly remember everything in the Booke of Alchemie. It was almost as if the book was magic, I thought to myself. The entire book just floated inside my mind. With just a thought, I could immediately flip any page in the book and recite the contents. And it wasn’t just that. I could organize ingredients according to their effects, side effects, appearances, and place of origin.

Usually it would take me a day of reading to get me this far, however, this book was special. It had barely taken two hours.

Or maybe… I wanted to check my status again. I didn’t know how.

“DubbAlina!” I called out. There was nobody here, anyway. “System? Can I check my Status board again?”

DubbAlina didn’t answer me, but a blue transparent screen appeared in front of me. They were listening, I guessed. They just didn’t want to talk to me for some reason.

My state was still ‘Healthy (Normal)’. My eyes went over my Wisdom, which was the highest stat in my entire status board- 16. There were only four stats though, so that wasn’t much. Why were there only four stats anyway? I wondered. There were qualities other than vitality, agility, wisdom, and strength. How about balance, perception, or charm, for example? And those were only the basic things I could think of.

I only had one skill: Learning.

I tapped it with my finger.

 

 

 

Wow. That explained a lot. Rote memorization ability was at x10. I guessed that was why I was able to memorize everything so quickly. I was usually horrible at memorization. Skill Inheritance Probability was very low. 1.15. And Special Skill Inheritance Probability was even lower. What was a Special Skill, anyway? How was it different from a regular skill?

And, I thought, it was a pity that the ‘skill’ was restricted to something taught by Zahid Fakhri in Crafting. Else I was sure I could become good at a lot of things. Was it possible to have two mentors? If I aslo had another mentor, for example, a warrior, would I be able to get better at fighting? But what if that wasn’t possible?

I was suddenly struck with an unpleasant thought. Would I have to be stuck with Grandpa forever? But, I noticed, there were no detriments to learning some other craft. There were only advantages to learning crafting. In other words, I could learn whatever I liked, and there would be no problem. Only slight regrets, but nothing more.

I relaxed on the problem for now.

When Grandpa returned, it was already dark. My cousin wasn’t back yet. Dinner was on the table. There was lamb on fried rice. There was also no cutlery, but that had never stopped me before. My right hand was big enough, so I didn’t even have to use both my hands. I tore into the meat with enthusiasm. It was the best, I thought happily. Delicious. It was even better than Mom’s cooking at her house.

Grandpa watched me eat. “Tomorrow,” he said, with a queer little smile that gave me the shivers; “You’ll start your lessons. With Cahil.”

Cahil? Oh. He probably meant my cousin, didn’t he? He was the only other person around here.

He pointed me to my room. It was an entirely white place, with everything I could ever dream of. Furniture. My eyes widened seeing a bookcase, and they widened even more with the mattress on the floor.  I stepped inside.

“Ahmad!”

“DubbAlina?” I said, still happy. “You’re back?”

DubbAlina huffed. “You… you just keep making my job harder, don’t you?” She said it grumpily, with a bit of an accent. I couldn’t tell what kind of accent it was.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Urgh.” DubbAlina groaned. And that was the last thing I heard before my head started to turn, and I blinked.

Hmm. I mused. I would have to try and figure this out.