"...w" I vaguely seemed to hear something. it was gradually becoming louder and clearer.
"..ow"
"Crow!"
*SLAP*
"Ugh" I violently opened my eyes to see a young boy aged around 12-13 shaking me and looking at me with pity in his eyes.
"Who are you? Where am I?" I asked as I remembered being surrounded by darkness for who knows how long.
"Dude have you lost your mind already! I told you not to perform alchemy without the guidance of a teacher or it'll explode and cause you more harm than you can possibly gain!"
With his account of events I suddenly gained a lot of memory belonging to a young boy named Crow. He was an orphan from a small village. After the people from the
[Shadow Sect] arrived in a city nearby to that village we all were sent there to be sold to them as slaves. After reaching the city they were all tested for magical talent. From a total of 157 orphans Crow and this boy standing before him known as Cloudhawk were the only ones who passed the test with Crow possessing E-Grade Talent and Cloudhawk with D-Grade Talent.
It's already been two and a half years since they had arrived in the [Shadow Sect]. While Cloudhawk was a level 2 Acolyte and has some chance of reaching Level 3 Acolyte to pass the test in six months time Crow was still stuck at Acolyte level 1 and has almost no chance of passing the test. So he started studying alchemy furiously as alchemist who could successfully concoct three level.0 potions only needed to reach Level 2 Acolyte to pass the test.
So Crow used up all of his saving to purchase alchemy ingredients to learn alchemy which resulted in the previous explosion where he was sent flying and died as a result.
'So, who am I?'
As Crow pondered the question, another sharp pain flashed through his head, causing another scene to appear in his mind's eye.
In the scene he was surrounded by multiple people and his chest was bleeding heavily.
He looked at the man at the front who seemed like the leader of the group and opened his mouth, "So even the Rank 7 Demigod Mars Luminary has come for my, Chen Zhaoge's, mysterious stone."
The man opposite was also bleeding from his mouth but looked much better than him. He frowned and said, "Don't slander us righteous path mages you devil's spawn. You've killed millions only to get a stupid rock. We're here to punish you for your evil deeds so millions of souls can rest in peace."
"Stop with the bullsh*t righteous path talk. In my eyes there's no righteous or demonic path only the path to get stronger exists. Come forward if you dare, I'll at least take you lot to the grave with me."
The other side was clearly hesitating because if he self-destructed at least half of them will lose their lives and the ones alive will be permanently disabled.
Chen Zhaoge suddenly did something that no one expected he ate the mysterious stone!
He then disappeared and appeared right behind them and exploded.
'So that's what happened' as he organized his memories from both lives things started to became clear.
He was given a new chance at life. While he felt he wouldn't regret his choices in his past life even facing death when the time came he truly felt some regrets regarding some of his choices in life. One of the biggest being not having a sturdy foundation without a single flaw in his body.
Now that he was given a second chance he'll use all he has to overcome the regrets of his past life.
"Ah, Cloudhawk I was feeling a bit dizzy and rambled something strange. So why are you here?"
"Your time to use the alchemy chambers are up. Every hour extra will cost you one rank-1 mana stone. I'm sent here by the teacher at the counter to take you out of the room."
"Okay, let me go out with you."
Crow went out together with Cloudhawk and after greeting the teacher and him goodbye he used his memories to find his room.
The room was very small barely being 5 square meters. Ha sat down on the stone bed and inspected his body.
While there were no external wounds he was slightly wounded internally which was slowly beginning to heal as he was a Level 1 Acolyte.
It'll take me two to three days to fully recover to my normal state only using the body's healing ability. Let me speed up the process.
He sat cross legged and stated circulation a breathing technique
"Fu~ That went better than expected. Looks like this really is another world. It would've taken at least an hour on my world. This worlds mana is at least 4 times better than my previous world."
The most pressing matter for him now was to reach Acolyte level 2 in six months time and upgrade his talent otherwise his future path will be blocked and he'll have to put thousands of times more resources and energy to achieve the same results of a talented person.
Firstly I need to solve my financial problem.
I remember there's rewards for disciples who can make potions to encourage them to become alchemists. Sadly without having decent talents in alchemy the risk outweighs the rewards.
'If I remember correctly there's a one time reward of 100 rank-1 mana stones for refining a level.0 healing potion with more than 80% potency.'
A single rank-1 mana stone can be used to buy 10 sets of ingredients to make healing potions which each sells for one rank-1 mana stone.
I only have six rank-1 mana stones left on me.
Which should've been only enough for my food expenses for the next half year.
It's time to make some money.