"Anytime now Earl" a student said, Laughter immediately filled the air as the students were mocking the boy that was stood out at the front of the classroom, "seriously? he can't even transmute lead into steel?, isn't that like the basics of basics of alchemy?" one female student said, desperately trying to hold in her laughter, "I know right, even my younger brother could do it, and he's only like five years old" another said while laughing hysterically, Earl kept on trying and trying, he waved his hands up and down, left and right, he twiddled his fingers in the air, but each time nothing happened to the lead seated in front of him, "I've got a tip for ya" a male student said, this male student had purple hair, he kept his white shirt untucked and didn't have a tie on, Earl hated the way this student dressed, they were all meant to wear a white shirt and black pants, along with a tie, this was the way Earl and nearly every other student dressed, but this student in particular always dressed however he wanted, and Earl hated it, in essence he hated the student in general, as he would always bully Earl excessively, every opportunity he got, and he felt that he would get bullied once more as he watched the student stand up from his seat walk towards him, upon reaching the front of the class he looked Earl in the eye as a smirk crept on his face, "why don't you ask your parents for help?" on hearing his comment, Earl immediately, stopped waving his hands and kept his head down, he clenched his fists tightly, as he looked down at the floor, "oh yeah" the student continued "you can't" he said as he started imitating a crying child, it made his classmates laugh even more than they already were, yet all Earl could do was stand still motionless, he then raised his head slowly, revealing his face, it was obvious that he was furious, the giant vein bulging off the side of his head and the intense way he gritted his teeth were pure evidence of that, Earl looked menacingly at Jake and clenched his fists even harder, seeing this, Jake became irritated, he took a few steps towards Earl and leaned in close to his ear, " what?, you got a problem?", he said as he held out his hand, air then began gathering in his palms and a knife made of air began to form in his hand, upon fully forming, he clasped the knife hard and held it up against Earl's throat, he then gave an evil smirk before repeating his question, only this time more menacingly, "I said do we have a problem?", "That's enough!!!" a voice from behind said, it was the teacher Mr Adams, he was the one who asked Earl to perform basic alchemy as it was his punishment for talking while the lesson was going on, but things had been taken too far and he stepped in to intervene "Jake that's enough go back to your seat", although reluctantly, Jake let go of the knife in his hand, and the knife disappeared just as it came, into thin air, Jake then walked back to his seat and sat down, Mr Adams then stood up as he addressed Earl.
The teacher Mr Adam then sighed before he began speaking," Earl you've failed this test 5 times now, I think it's about time you gave up alchemy and instead go for a simpler job like a farmer", once again the whole classroom was filled with laughter, but were quickly silenced after one quick death glare from their teacher, Earl shook his head and began ranting to his teacher, " I can't, I have to prove that-", "look" Mr Adam suddenly cut in, "I know you have something to prove, but you can't keep failing this class and expect to be an Alchemist, we cut you some slack in the entrance exam, but that's as far as it goes", Earl still wanted to complain to his teacher, but was interrupted when the school bell rang signalling that the school day was over, "we'll have this discussion tomorrow" said Mr Adam, "You guys are dismissed for the day, and Jake, no more of that nonsense", with that everyone left the class and began to head home.
Earl was walking down the school steps, the school was a large one that had a giant clock that hung at the front of its entrance, off to the side was where bikes were kept, and Earl was at the bottom steps as he walked over to the bike racks when Jake, the kid from his class was walking out of the schools entrance at the top of the steps with another classmate, "hey, isn't that Earl White?" the student pointed out, Jake then noticed him walking off to the bike racks, an idea suddenly popped into his head, "hey watch this" he said as he held out his hand, a rotating sphere of wind began to form in the palm of his hand, and he threw it towards Earl, the sphere hit him dead on his back sending him flying and crashing into the bike racks, Earl turned around fidgeting, looking as to see where the attack came from, everyone who witnessed it began laughing at him, and soon a small crowd of students formed around him, he felt so embarrassed, "Who did that?" he asked looking around, but of course no answer was given, all the students just stood laughing at him, "whoever did that, it isn't funny", his comment only made the crowd of students that surrounded him laugh even more, he looked left right and centre only to see laughing faces, eventually he spotted Jake who was smirking off to the side, he clenched his fists and looked at Jake, the anger he had, had resurfaced, his menacing gaze was once again affixed on Jake, Jake seeing this then walked down the stairs and over to where Earl laid on the floor, he looked down at Earl as he gave a menacing gaze of his own, "if you got a problem with me, then say it if not, apologize", more air spheres started forming and about 4 of them were hovering above Jake's head, Earl looked at Jake thinking to himself, why, why did he always have to have the short end of the straw in life?? why must he always be the one being picked on? was it because he couldn't perform alchemy? his parents died from a sickness, and he had been living with his maternal grandfather eversince, yet he still got bullied because of it, all he wanted to do now was punch Jake until his knuckles broke, but he couldn't, not if he wanted to anyway.
"Why would I apologize to you?" Earl said, he did so with a hint of menace in his voice, Jake then had a devilish grin appear on his face, "I'm going to enjoy this", he then readied his fist, air began forming around his palms, but as it grew, he would reduce it in size compressing it, "Hey!!!" Mr Adams shouted from the top of the stairs, on hearing his voice all the students began running off and riding their bikes, Jake let out a grunt as the air spheres all dissipated "You got lucky this time Earl" he said as he walked off, Earl then picked himself off the floor, walked towards his bike, picked it up, got on, and began riding home.
He parked in front of his grandfather's store, got off his bike and walked in, the store was about the size of two classrooms, at the front door was a bell, signalling whoever was running the shop at the time that a customer had walked in, off to the left was the counter, or more like desk, the desk was where his grandfather would usually sit when attending to customers, there wasn't anything on the counter except for a small pen, beside the counter was a staircase which led to where Earl and his grandfather lived, after that were rows of shelves filled with different items, everything was the same way he had left it this morning, but none the less he had to get to work, he looked around, but saw no sign of his grandpa, so he proceeded upstairs, took off his school uniform, had a change of clothes, headed back downstairs, and began doing his daily routine of cleaning, he cleaned the shelves, the storage room, he dusted the artifacts, and swept the floors. His grandfather ran a magical item shop, were he would sell magical items to adventurers or local townsfolk, although the times were a little advanced, as people had cars and modern clothes, people still bought magical artifacts, some as a hobby, some for its magical importance, and some for other purposes, the things sold in his grandfather's shop helped a lot of people, and all this items existed all thanks to alchemy, it helped humans create remarkable things, such as the automobiles, planes, building equipment, weapons, even clothing and building materials, and selling those things was his grandfather's occupation.
Earl was about 169cm tall and had pure white scattered hair, he had rich smooth skin, and deep red eyes, on his left arm, he had bandages cover up a scar shaped like an X, he was 15 at the time and couldn't perform any form of alchemy at all. Alchemy is the art of transforming or creating matter of any form with ones mana, it could also be used to transform one form of matter to another, and although everyone had alchemy, not everyone could perform Alchemy, however Earl attended a school for Alchemist, and considering he was the only one who couldn't perform Alchemy, made him an easy target for his classmate, they are a vast majority of alchemy to choose from, the most common being elemental alchemy, but there are thousands of different alchemy with more being created each day, but due to the fact that Earl had almost zero mana, he couldn't perform alchemy at all, hence the constant bullying from Jake, who, despite his appearance, was the strongest student in the school at the time, but regardless of what Jake did, Earl still wanted to be an Alchemist, before his parents died, they were one of the greatest alchemists in the world, but due to a sudden illness which claimed both their lives, he was left to be taken care of by his grandfather, since the age of 6, but more than anything, he just wanted to be a great Alchemist.
"Hey grandpa I'm done with cleaning the shelves" said Earl, just then an elderly man with white hair just as scattered as Earl's and a long pointed beard, a monocle on his right eye, and a clay pipe in his mouth walked in, he wore a singlet and brown shorts, and sandals, he looked over at Earl and took a whiff of his clay pipe before addressing Earl, "well then help me clean out those boxes by the back shelf, throw out everything in those boxes" he said as he took a seat on a chair behind the counter and leaned back, "I should be getting paid for all the hard labour I do you know grandpa Ollie" Earl said annoyed at the fact that all his grandpa ever did once he arrived was relax and smoke his clay pipe, "don't worry I'll start paying ya when ya need it" grandpa Ollie said will waving his hand at Earl, like he was some type of fly disturbing him, Earl kept a mental reminder of the paying promise, but ignored everything else.
Grandpa Ollie's shop is the bottom floor of where he and his grandson lives, the house was built on a small hill making it a little noticeable to any passing merchants, or adventurers, they lived just above the shop, and luckily for them, the house was big enough to hold about 4 people, Earl had his own separate room upstairs, which was off to the left after heading upstairs, but however, he would have to leave if he ever wanted to use the bathroom or visit any other room. He had a lot of books on Alchemy in his room upstairs, his parents left behind a lot of books they had about alchemy, as well as journals documenting their adventures, Earl would read them every single day once he got home from school, it was the highlight of his day, and just like every other day, all he wanted to do was get his work done, and head upstairs.
Earl carried the boxes one by one, there where five in total, and placed them out back, beside a dumpster, when carrying the last box however, an old looking book fell out of it, 'A book?' Earl thought to himself, most of the boxes he had been carrying so far were filled with torn or worn down clothes, old shoes and dolls, and the occasional dead cockroach, but yet an old dusty book fell out of this box, Earl opened it up checking if they were any other books, but found none, intrigued by the book, he put the box down and picked the book up, upon closer inspection of the book, he noticed that the cover of the book looked plain and
tattered, not to mention they were huge bulky chains going round the entire book, it was blue in colour, and it didn't seem to have an exact lock on it, normally he would've just thought it was junk and threw it away, but why would a book so plain looking be locked up with chains?, he kicked the box slightly closer to the trash and went back to admiring the book, he couldn't help but get intrigued with the book, he walked back inside the shop and saw his grandpa still behind the counter, leaning back on his chair, " hey grandpa what book is this?" Earl asked, if anyone would know anything about the strange book, it would be his grandpa, apart from the fact that he owned the shop and all the items in it, his grandfather was quite knowledgeable about a lot of things, due to his frequent interactions with foreigners and alchemists.
"Oh,... you mean that weird chained book?, it was here when we moved in eight years ago, your parents said that I should bring you here before they died, so I assumed they owned the place, the place was empty when we got here though, but I found that book upstairs, I didn't know who owned it so I held on to it in hopes that whoever owned it would come for it some day, but no-one ever came so I'm just gonna throw it out", Earl was a little disappointed at his grandpa, he slapped his face as he felt like his grandpa was just dumb, "what if it belonged to my mom and dad?", Earl asked, honestly he was dumbfounded that his grandpa hadn't thought about that before, but there wasn't anything he could do to make his grandpa any smarter, however his curiosity just increased, "Well since you're throwing it out anyway, how about I keep it", said Earl "be my guest" grandpa Ollie replied, with that Earl took off to his room.
Upstairs in his room, Earl was sitting down at his desk trying to figure out what this book was and how it opened, it had chains going around it, but had no lock, yet the chains still looked to be tightly kept in place, it almost looked like the chains were created around the book, "well, it's definitely chain alchemy, that's for sure" he said while he picked up the book and examined it even more, "how am I gonna get you open?" he said to himself as he began stroking his chin, it was obvious to him that it was alchemy, however chains made from alchemy were quite different from chains made from molten metal, they were stronger and harder to deal with, unless one knew the exact spell used, or the method used in neutralising it, it would be difficult to break it, and it's not like Earl had any talent for alchemy to begin with, so if he wanted to get the book open, he would need to think of another method to do so, he thought long and hard as he sat at his desk when something popped up in his mind, "maybe there's something about it in dad's journals", he then reached for his dad's journals which sat at the back end of his desk and began flipping through it, page by page, carefully and slowly as to not miss any important information, he did this for the whole night, checking journal after journal, and eventually textbook after textbook, but couldn't find anything on Chain alchemy, at least not anything that would help him any way, he kept at it till about ten pm before he remembered one more thing, "grandma's book!!" he said, he had a book that was given to him by his grandmother before she died, it was a book on undoing spells and alchemy, and he could clearly remember it containing information on chain alchemy, however he checked all over the desk, the shelves which hanged over his bed, and even his school bag, but couldn't find it anywhere, "crap, I just remembered, I was reading it in class, that's why Mr Adams called on me, well then I guess I'll just have to figure you out tomorrow" he said laying down on his bed as he drifted off to sleep.
The next day had come and it was noon, Earl had just returned from school, he had finished with his chores downstairs so he rushed up stairs, he pulled out his grandma's book from his bag and began flipping through the pages one by one, he eventually reached a page which talked on chain Alchemy, he read it carefully and made a mental note of all the instructions mentioned, he then rushed into the kitchen got a knife, some salt, some sun lotus oil and ran back, he placed the book in the middle of the table and pushed every other thing to the side, he first examined the book and looked around it, he noticed a small line that ran across one of outer plates, he quickly took the salt and sprinkled it on the line, he then opened the sun lotus oil and poured a little in his palm, then with his other hand he dipped his index and middle finger in it and smeared it across the line, a small cobalt blue hue shown as he did this, he then held the knife in his hands and raised it in the air, he slammed down as hard as he could, and just like that the chain broke, "Yes!!!", the chain then began glowing a bright white as it slowly faded away leaving only the book, "now let's see what's in here" he said as he opened up the book, excitement filled his body as he opened the first page, but it was quickly overtaken by the feeling of disappointment as the pages were blank, a huge frown was plastered across his face, he felt deep disappointment, "what a waste of time" he said as he closed the book up, "and I had this tingling sensation in my gut, this excitement, all for nothing", he truly felt disappointed, but it seemed like he could still feel traces of excitement, he let out a sigh as he began rearranging all the things he had pushed off to the side of the table, yet he still felt this tingling feeling in his stomach, "I guess I was a little too excited" he said as he continued arranging his desk, but the feeling in his stomach became more violent and painful, in no time it went from being a small sensation to an intense burning sensation he could feel in his chest, he took off his shirt in panic, he didn't know what was happening to him, all he knew was that it was extremely painful, it felt like hot molten metal was being poured on his chest, he tried his best to hold his screams in, but intense grunts escaped his mouth as the immense pain continued, at this point he was panicking on the floor of his bedroom, books were still scattered about his desk and the chair be sat on was broken, he looked down at his chest, only to see an alchemy circle being engraved onto his skin, the mysterious book began floating it was now engulfed in a white cloud like substance, and had the first page open up by itself, Earl didn't know what to do, the pain was too much, he had never felt this much pain in his life, and now whatever mysterious book this was, was inflicting so much pain on him, he managed to catch a glance of the book and noticed that the same alchemy circle was being drawn on the book, the pain was so much that he couldn't bear it anymore, he tried reaching for the book as he gritted his teeth, maybe closing the book would stop whatever was going on, but instead the pain only became more intense, he began panicking once again, he dug his fingers into his chest, hoping to tear out whatever was being drawn on it, but it kept being engraved, he endured this continuous torture for 10 excruciatingly painful minutes, and it eventually stopped, the full alchemy circle could be seen across his chest, he laid there on the floor sweaty and exhausted, he didn't feel any pain anymore but couldn't find enough strength to get off the floor, he was exhausted, confused and yet still a tad bit curious, he eventually got off the floor and picked up a mirror from under his pillow, looking at the alchemy circle engraved on his chest, he could make out a few symbols and what they represented, 'these are all symbols used in contract Alchemy'. Contract Alchemy is a type of Alchemy that binds two objects, people, materials, animals or even beasts together, it is normally used by beast tamers, when taming selling off, or transporting beasts they would normally employ contract Alchemy to ensure that the beast doesn't attack it's master or transporter, it could also be used on personal items, like say for example a magical item could be bound by a contract to its owner, so as to ensure that anyone who steals it wouldn't be able to use it at all, it was what was done to all the items downstairs in grandpa Ollie's shop, but contracts put on items could be easily broken, as long as the owner of such item smeared off the binding contract, they would loose ownership of it, but it was usually hidden to avoid thieves getting a hold of the items, however using it on humans had long been abolished, ever since slavery was outlawed and banned, contract binding alchemy hadn't been used on a human for about 200 years now, of course he knew all this due to his extensive and vast love for all things alchemy, he still couldn't figure out what had caused such a mark to appear across his chest, but before he could give it more though, his head became hazy, his eyes slowly started getting blurry, his arms and knees were getting heavier and heavier, and before he knew it, he collapsed to the floor.
He woke up after about 2 hours, and immediately held his head as he had a terrible headache, he slowly got off the floor and sat on his bed, "how long was I out?" he thought to himself, he looked out the window by the side of his bed and noticed that the sun was going down, looking around everything looked scattered, the way he left it, "it seems no-one has come into my room just yet then I guess I'll-", but before he could complete his sentence, he instantly froze in place as he saw a virtual message pop up in front of his eyes
[Race: Human]
[Affinity: None]
[Mana: 0]
[Exp: 0/5]
[Ki: 0]
[Spiritual Energy: 50/50]
[Strength: 5]
[Speed: 5]
[Agility: 5]
[Skills: None]
[Talisman: None]
[Level: 1]
[Bonding successful, You are now the new master of the grimoire]
[Shop unavailable]
[Defence: 2]
[Resistance: 0]
With all these sudden messages flooding his head he didn't understand what was happening or how to stop it, while trying to figure out what to do he heard his door hinges squeaking, which meant his grandpa was coming in "Crap".