Dudian looked at some of the bottles and jars on the table next to her. All of them were tagger but instead of words they had strange symbols painted on them. Some of them had sun, some had the sun and stars overlapping while the others had hooks and so on painted on the stickers.
"What's this?" asked Dudian.
Nightingale saw the bottle which he was referring to and replied in confusion: "Don't you know the signs?"
Dudian thought and shooh his head: "No idea."
"Haven't you memorized the basic alchemy symbols? How come?" Nightingale was stunned.
It was the first time that Dudian heard the phrase 'Alchemy symbols'. He was slightly surprised but fortuntely there was a mask on his face which didn't let the others see the expression on his face. He knew that symbols are used to mark anything... Like the mathematical symbols...
There was no record of this in Rosyard's alchemy notes. He guessed that it was mainly for juniors to know so there was no meaning in Rosyard using the symbols. So he said: "Yes. Ah, but unfortunately all my materials were lost when the damned Knights of Light raided my teacher's den had killed him. Holy Church's minions have seized everything so I've nothing to study on. Do you have alchemy symbols book in here? May I borrow it to study?"
Nightingale was suspicious at first because of Dudian's lack of knowledge regarding the basics of alchemy. However when she hear him condemn Holy Church she gave up on her suspicions. She pointed to a shelf next to Dudian. There was a thick book with black cover. "There, you can study it but remember not to break the book."
Dudian nodded, "Thank you very much."
He picked up the encyclopedia of symbols and was about to open it to study when he heard Nightingale say: "You should go and study in the room I've told you to before. This place is small and I'm going to be doing my own experiments."
Dudian came over to the small warehouse she was referring to. It was slightly messy so the chamber had to be cleaned.
He didn't care much about the dirtiness of the place as he cleaned a small place for himself to sit and read the alchemy symbols book.
There lines drawn on the pages of the book. On each line there was a symbol drawn and next to it a detailed explaination was give. Dudian saw the previous sun symbol. In the alchemist codex it represented gold!
"No wonder, the bottle was so small and weighted less. It had golden power." Dudian murmured and continued to read.
Time went past unknowningly.
Dudian was completely immersed in reading and memorizing the symbols and meaning behind them. At the beginning of the book it was explained that most og the symbols originated from astrology. With the decline of astrology, astrological symbols gradually evolved into an indepented system of alchemy symbols.
Usually a lot of alchemical symbols were piled together and was recorded in the content of the experiments done by the alchemists. It was written so that without having the knowledge of the symbols it was not possible to grasp the meaning behind the writings. As a result, the alchemy symbol encyclopedia was the basic requirement for every alchemist.
When he was almost finishing the book he heard nightingale's voice coming over form the door of the warehouse: "Where is the 'dog'? It's late and the sky is getting dark. We are ready to go back to our homes. Are you going to stay here all night?"
Dudian was surprised for a moment as he didn't expect the time to fly so quickly. He immediately closed the book, opened the door and saw Nightingale and Snake were standing by the widewalk. : "I'll go back to... Let's go together."
"Alright." The Nightingale nodded.
Snake glanced at the book in Dudian's hand and laughed: "Nightingale told me but I didn't believe it. I couldn't believe that you still haven't memorized the symbols. Gee! You are an apprentice alchemist, ah! Hahaha...."
Dudian heard his joke and smiled: " It's a bit slow but I'm memorizing them."
"I see you are lazy." Snake nodded: "I understand you. I had headache while memorizing the symbols too. So I make all kinds of excuses to avoid reading the damned book. At the end, my teacher personally forced me to learn. That why I memorized somehow. But nightingale was smart. She only spent a week or so and was able to learn all of it. It took me six months! Ah!"
Nightingale smiled: "Don't exaggerate it! It took me around two week to completely memorize it."
"That is also out of ordinary." Snake said in authentic tone as if he was in awe of her capabilities.
Dudian put the book back in place, said: "Are you guys going to come over tomorrow?"
"Of course." Snake replied instantly.
Nightingale shook her head: "Most probably I won't be able to but I'll see the situation."
Dudian said, "I'll come tomorrow."
"Night," said the Nightingale, looked at Dudian and the snake, "Who will go first?"
"I will be the first to leave." Snake was a bit blunt as he waved to Dudian came through the corridor to the secret wall and climbed out.
"Wait a few minutes for us to go out again," said the Nightingale.
Dudian nodded in understanding. He knew that she was worried about attracting the attention of people if many people went out at once. Moreover each person needed a bit of time to take of their mask and robes.
A moment later, Dudian was the second to leave. He went out to the alley. He noticed no one on the street so he put away his mask. But his face still was covered with the robe. He couldn't wear the mask on the street, however he could mask half of his face with the robes hood as other will think that there is some kind of disease on his face. So no one would be willing to get closer to him.
Dudian wanted to take the shortcut to his home but suddenly sensed a familiar smell. He turned towards the other side of the street.
Not long after Dudian left a small boy's figure appeared in the allew. He frowned while looking at the direction Dudian went away. He sneered as he whispered: "Even covering his face as he leaves the den...Too careful!" He didn't think much but turned away to leave to his home.
Shortly after his departure, Dudian looked from the corner of the street. He didn't expect the snake to be so crafty. He came out in advance but didn't leave. Snake was hiding over the corner of the street so that he could see Dudian's true appearance.
"The snake can not be taken lightly in the future." Dudian secretly thought. If they knew about his looks then they would be able to handle him in the future through various means.
Dudian looked back at the alley. He knew that nightingale was about to come out but he gave up on the opportunity to peek at her true face. After all, she didn't have any kind of bad intention towards him so he would leave her alone.
After a few street he determined that there was no familiar smell around so he came to a corner of the street. While there was no one around he quickly took off the black robe, rolled it and left on a detour to his home.