A serpent's symbol of the fireplace in the ruined room faltered Felix steps and chilled him out with its demonic gaze.
"That snake seem, little bit scary."
"That Auralus Family symbol, a Basilisk Emerald snake with golden eyes, venomous snake who can kill with its gaze alone, the Basilisk has terrified us for thousands of years. But it also has another name—uhm never mind, nyaa."
"What room is it anyway?"
"Library, nyaa."
"It looks like you know a lot of things about this Auralus mansion."
"Nah, I'm just guessing. No big deal, right nyaa."
Faris was sure Blacky knew more about this room, but for some reason he chose to hide it. Whatever it was, he tried to think positively. Blacky must have his own reasons.
Faris decided to check the room with Blacky.
Covering his nose, Faris entered the room beside him, smelling of charred books. It was almost like the place was burnt to the ground.
In the grey room many books were scattered in various sizes. Some were almost burned, some were saved. It looks like the owner of the mansion has a hobby of reading.
Faris opened some books on a half baked pine reading table. "Did this mansion catch fire recently?
"Maybe." -Blacky climbs on the table- "Can you read those writing, nyaa?"
"Yes, I can. Why?"
"That's Ancient Ra. It's good to be able to read it. Only a few people can, nyaa."
Even though he could read the books in this room, Faris could not understand the meaning of those writings.
"Faris, look. There's a strange object over there. I think you should check it out before doing anything else. Make haste, nyaa."
His attention was drawn to the box above the pentagram on the floor. The medium-sized silver box was clean, contrasting with the dirty surroundings. There is an engraved word there. 'Only for the king of serpents'.
When the box was touched, there was a bright golden light for a moment, before the box opened. There was an old brown bracelet with Auralus symbol and a scroll of white parchment sealed with a snake's head symbol.
The writing on the parchment is written in a beautiful and easy-to-read dialect.
[Wear the bracelet. Don't be afraid, all centuries of knowledge will be unlocked when you wear it."]
It seemed like this writing was intended for Faris. He picked up the bracelet to put it on, but he decided against it. What if the bracelet is dangerous?
"I think the bracelet suits you. Hurry up and wear it, I'm curious, nyaa."
"How about I just put it in your hand?"
"Welp no way! Hurry up and wear it, already, nyaa." Blacky frontally urged Faris to wear bracelet and the cat won. That push over cat gave a fatuous smile.
After wearing it, a needle emerged from inside the bracelet head to suck Faris' blood. The Auralus Basilisk's eye on the necklace lit up and another needle came out, injecting something into Faris vein. The bracelet shrinks to lock around his wrist.
"Argh. What the heck?" Faris fell to his knees with the pain in wrist. No matter how hard he tried to remove it, the bracelet could not be removed. "Blacky, help me. This thing, what's with this thing!"
"Don't be afraid. Only those with Auralus blood can wear that thing. Now that I'm one hundred percent sure you're Auralus, take it easy, it'll come off after you do some alchemy, nyaa."
Felix felt warm, as if something was moving from his veins to his whole body. It make him shiver in fear, but, what can he do?
Suddenly a strange voice appeared in his head, a man's voice that sounded arrogant.
"If you hear me, don't be afraid. I'm just a voice in your head and will guide you for a moment. I could have told Blacky the code, but in the few hundred years I've been with him, his mouth is too wide to keep secrets. Concentrate and mentally say Ancestor Alchemy three times, then a chart set will appear that will help you become the greatest alchemy in this world. To close the chart, simply mentally say close Ancestor Alchemy chart three times. Go on, try it."
Faris turned to Blacky at the table. "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what, I didn't hear anything. Did you just farting, nyaa?"
Faris was sure the cat was being honest. "No, it's okay." He sat on the chair and tried to follow the mysterious voice's guidance.
A chart appeared in front of Faris that could not be touched and could only be seen by him. There were 997,447,907 alchemy recipes and only those in grade E were open, the rest were locked.
[Name: Auralus
Grade: E
Level: 1
Exp: 0/1,500
Stamina: 5/10
Quest:
1. Perform E grade alchemy 100 times.]
The voice of the arrogant man came back into Faris' head.
"The quest will give you exp according to the level of the quest. Every time you do alchemy grade E, you will get 1 exp. Doing alchemy grade B will get 2 exp, and so on. Every time you increase the grade, you will be rewarded with a unique ability. How's that? Are you happy? Don't be happy yet, because this system is cursed."
"Cursed? What do you mean?"
Blacky confusedly tilted his head to the right while observing Faris. "Hmm? What's wrong, nyaa?"
Faris realized that this voice was only for him. These alchemy recipes, not everyone knew. With this chart Faris realized, knowledge was in his hands. Knowledge is power and whoever controls power, controls the world. He grinned widely.
"Blacky, tell me, what is the most valuable thing that humans want?"
"Of course food! But, money too, women for men and men for women. Eeh, why ask like that, nyaa?"
"I want those all." Faris got up from his seat after closing the chart. "Help me do alchemy for 100 time. Can you?"
"What? What do you want to created, nyaa?"
Faris easily made stamina-boosting python medicine from ingredients he found in the forest. Thanks to the instruction chart on how to get the ingredients.
Then he created that potion manually for the first time, an he successed made it as grade S item. As a result, it only lost 5% of the components while he created more potion using alchemy.
Together with Blacky he sold those medicine in a nearby city and with the money he made, he bought other ingredients that he couldn't get in the forest. Then he started making cold remedies, and other daily medicines manually, again, it came out as grade S item. Then he using alchemy for mass production efficiency.
He sold medicines at high price to the rich and sold health medicines at very bottom price to the poor, even for free to those who need it most but have no money. His medicine was greatly effective.
His exploit was spreaded like a wildfire.
Within a few weeks Faris' name became famous as a seller of low cost premium medicines. Many people liked him, but many hated him and wanted his demise.