Shoving the washbasin full of weeds under his bed, Alex laid down and went to sleep early that night. Waking up and getting out of bed the next morning, he was rather disappointed to find himself in tip top shape. "No swelling of the fingers, tongue, or throat," he sighed regretfully. "No fever, irritable bowels, or loss of appetite either. I guess I really don't have a drop of spiritual power at the moment," he sighed, sadly.
Truth was, in the deepest recesses of his heart, Alex had actually been hoping to have some sort of reaction to the silver grass. "I didn't want to just be some sort of worthless animal," Alex sighed deeply to himself.
Truly, his only hope now, laid in the books that he'd uncovered before the semester's end. "Maybe I should just give up on trying to earn money for now and take the opportunity to freely study those books," Alex worried to himself, biting his lower lip unconsciously.
After sitting and seriously pondering on the subject for a good half hour, Alex finally shook his head from side to side. "Nope," he told himself determinedly. "Even if I can sort out the problem with my cultivation, I'm still going to need a large sum of money to turn my life around. First thing first, I'll need to fully change back to a man and quit being a 'Brudder Boobz' all the time. And, before I can do that, I might need to be prepared to fully pay for a private room somewhere and get out of this dorm.
"After I'm all man again, and after I fix my spirit problem, *then* things are going to get REALLY expensive! That's when I'm going to need a fortune's worth of pills, elixirs, and tonics to help me catch up with everyone else already," Alex sighed deeply.
"I can always study the books in the archives," Alex sternly reminded himself, "but the Jackass Three will steal all my coin when they come back after the break. I have to take this opportunity to earn and invest, so I can have enough finances and be prepared to step forward and turn my life around when the chance actually comes."
Having made his decision— even if part of him still doubted if it was the right one — Alex quickly got up, slipped into his normal outfit, and hurried down to eat breakfast. Woofing down the food, before he could change his mind, Alex quickly hurried back to his room afterwards, and grabbed the old washbasin from under his bed with the silver grass in it.
"Sell these, as there are," Alex muttered to himself as he headed towards the door, "I could probably sell them for upwards of fifteen gold." Turning and going down the hall, he headed upstairs towards the private rooms, rather than to the exit. "Let's see if I can't do a little better than that," he chuckled lightly to himself.
Going all the way up to the eighth floor of the dorm, Alex strolled down the hall until he reached the second door to the left. Trying the handle, it turned easily, and Alex waltzed on in as if he owned the place. "Just like I thought," he chuckled sneakily to himself. "The cleaners have unlocked all these rooms, and they haven't gotten down to this floor yet. They usually end up locking them up once they're finished with them."
Whistling happily, Alex kicked of his high heels and casually eased over and slid into a long white robe that was hanging on a rack at the wall. Slipping a glossy pair of goggles around his face, Alex strolled over and opened one of the back doors in the room. Walking on in, he laughed happily while staring at everything before him.
An alchemy room! That's where he was right now — in the Lord Jacob Northfire's personal alchemy room!
"Rich bastard," Alex snorted, glaring all around. It was Jacob who had concocted the elixir his roommates had forced him to drink, and which grew out his breasts as they were now. "Asshole, you ought to be happy I'm just going to use your shit, rather than steal it all and sell it on the blackmarket," Alex snorted, trying to fight back the feelings of deep anger in his heart.
Placing the washbasin on top of one of the granite countertops, Alex spent the next half hour or so familiarizing himself with all the equipment in the room. Even though he'd read countless books on alchemy, and various formulas, down in the archives of the school library, Alex had never actually practiced before. After all, since none of the teachers would accept his talentless self as a disciple, or allow him to take classes, all of Alex's knowledge was theoretical at best!
"This should produce the flame I need," Alex mused, as he slowly rubbed his hand across the top of a blood-red crystal embedded on one of the tables. Almost instantly, a small circular array pattern glowed blue in response to the touch, causing a small yellow-red flame to flicker in the center of it.
"A little more than that, if I remember right," Alex muttered softly. Tapping the stone a second time caused the flame to turn pure red. Another tap of the stone caused the red flame to form a white center. Another tap created a pure white flame, and one more turned it blueish-white.
"That should do it," Alex nodded happily, content that he was matching the requirements just as he'd read about them. Whistling merrily, Alex slid one of the metal stands centered around the flame, and then placed a large empty flask in the stand.
"Water. Water. Where's the water stones hiding in this room?" Sliding out one of the drawers that he'd snooped through before, Alex continued his whistling as he picked up a blue small glass bead in his fingers. "Ha! I knew I saw it here," he bragged to himself.
Walking back to the flask and the flame, Alex held the stone above the opening of the flask and softly commanded, "Drizzle!" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, a tiny drizzle of water began to leak out of the stone and into the flask.
"Ker…reerrr…rackk!" A small puff of steam billowed up out of the flask, causing Alex to jerk his hands back before he burnt himself, as a spiderweb of cracks suddenly appeared in the bottom of the flask, and quickly grew ever larger up both sides.
"Chhh…inkka…. Chiinka… Kachunkk!" A few small fragments flaked off the flask and tinked upon the table at first, followed by the whole thing shattering and dropping glass shards all over the place a moment later.
"Oh shit!!" Panicking, Alex quickly slapped the black stone on the table, turning off the flame. Stepping back several feet away from the mess he'd just created, Alex stared wide-eyed at the broken shards scattered across the tabletop and floor.
Who knew pouring cold water into a molten hot glass would break it?!!