Volume 1: 05 - Virtuous Old Man, Create the Philosopher's Stone

It is now night-time, and I’m alone in my room, practicing magic control.

On the table, I’m sitting at, which is situated by a window, I have piled up a large number of pebbles.

Each one of them is about the size of a knuckle.

What I do with them is that, I take one pebble at a time and pour magic into it.

It’s training for me to memorize other ways in which I can transform objects and the amount of magic power I need to do so.

If a person pours magic into a substance thoughtlessly, the change in the substance will be affected by the attribute the person is best at, but of course there are other ways to manipulate matter.

That is the goal of my training.

「Mmm, another failure? 」

The pebble in my palm has turned into metal.

From the shine and texture of the metal, it appears to have turned into copper.

Given what transformation I’m after at the moment, this is a failure.

I’m in the position where I have an enormous pool of magical power but which I cannot handle well.

If I were to use an analogy, I’d say it’s like riding a rampaging horse without reigns.

I want to be in control of this strongest incredible amount of magic that is unheard of.

No, it is my responsibility to do so.

I cannot afford to wield this power without proper control, if by any chance it goes out of hand, it’ll be disastrous.

That’s why I must train myself to use it.

I pick up another stone and pour magic into it too.

This one turns into iron. Another failure.

I put it aside and take another one and also pour magic into it.

With a minor adjustment to the amount of magic I am pouring, the stone changes into silver. It’s yet another failure.

I repeat the process again, and again.

Eventually, I manage to create the metal I desire – gold.

These are normal pebbles I randomly picked up in the garden. I am using magical material transformation to turn them into different metals.

The gold I have created is the same size as the pebble.

I put it down and take another pebble.

If I use the same technique, I will produce yet another proper gold.

This time I change one variable in the process, I take the silver-turned pebble and pour magic into it.

Successfully, it turns into gold.

「Yes, meaning I can do it in reverse, too 」

I pick up a successfully turned gold, and fill it with magic.

The gold then reverts to a normal pebble.

So far, I think I have gained enough handle on this transformation, and decide to turn the pile of pebbles into gold for a while.

At the end of a lot of transformation, the gold scattered across my table is enough to buy a few houses and hundreds of slaves.

To think it all originated from pebbles – cheap pebbles.

「I’m coming in, Alec-sama— 」

「You can come in, Angie. Today you’re wearing pink pyjamas, they’re pretty 」

「Thank you, Alec-sama 」

Angie smiles happily.

She has changed into loose-fitting pyjamas after taking a bath and looks dizzyingly from using the hot water.

Normally she would crawl into bed after this, and sleep until morning.

But Angie naturally noticed the gold piled up on the table.

「Alec-sama, what are you shopping for? 」

「No, I was practicing magic 」

「Practicing magic? 」

「Yeah, like this 」

I take one of the gold and hold it out in the palm of my hand so that Angie could see it better.

And then, load it up with magic power.

The gold substance turns into stone.

「First I take the stone 」

「Wow, gold turned into stone 」

「Next, lead, copper, iron, silver, and gold 」

We watch as the pebble in my hand switches rapidly in an array of ways.

Each metal sparkled differently, but the shape remained exactly the same.

It is interesting sight, to see the pebble change colour in this fashion.

「Wa, that’s great, Alec-sama 」

「It takes more than just high magic power to do this. There is also control in the process 」

「Ah! I see! 」

I smile at Angie and return all the items on the table that I had used for practice from gold to original pebbles.

I am getting used to it, so in a matter of minutes I had changed them all back to their original state.

「Why did you turn them to stone, Alec-sama? 」

「It’s not ideal to make gold out of stone, you know 」

It’s not possible to do it with ordinary magic power though.

Magicians throughout history have only dreamt of creating gold from base metals but none have succeeded.

I only managed to it because of my SSS-ranked magic power.

「So this is a secret between Angie and I. Don’t tell anyone I can do this, okay? 」

I wink at her, and adorably Angie clenched both her fists with determined look.

「Yes! I will never tell anyone 」

「Thank you, Angie 」

「Oh, Alec-sama, there’s another piece of gold left in there 」

「Let’s see… which one is it? 」

There is a piece of gold in the block of stone, which I missed when I was restoring them.

Here gold is rarely seen in the form of a stone.

It is usually in the form of a gold coin, a gold nugget, or an accessory of some sort.

If I let it people see the pebble as it is now, people with good instincts will notice it, which would be problematic.

「Thank you, Angie that was very helpful 」

「Hehe…… 」

Angie grins happily.

I hold the stone and pour magic power to turn it completely back to a pebble.

Suddenly an idea pops in my mind.

It is a flash of inspiration, even for me, an inspiration which has come to me but I don’t understand entirely the reason.

The only word that remains clearly in my mind from this idea is「interesting 」.

「 …… 」

I squeeze the stone again in my grip.

After becoming accustomed to the feeling of the pebble in my hand, I start pouring my magic into it to return it to pebble, then I wrap my hands around it, in a prayer gesture and charged it with more magic.

I keep pouring in magic, more and more into it to transform it.

Unlike before when I was not aware of my power, this time I put a huge amount of magic power into it, but carefully limiting it so as not to wipe out the original substance

It’s a rampaging horse and a very complex reigning.

It’s like commanding the horse to「go 」and「halt 」at the same time.

I pay close attention and continue to transfer my magic into the stone, but not enough for the pebble to disappear.

The pebble is like a sponge, repeatedly absorbing all my magic.

My palms are burning up; it’s as if I’m holding onto a miniature sun.

Eventually, a feeling of weakness and light-headedness hit me.

It’s a common feeling I am very aware of from my past life, it’s the weakness I felt when I ran out of magic power.

I’m pouring all my magic into this stone, the strongest magic power in history – SSS-ranked magic – and I transformed it.

I slowly open my palms, and there it is, completely unseen, a stone with a strange colour and overwhelming presence.

「Alec-sama, what is that….? 」

「I’m not certain yet」

I’m sceptical myself, but I suspect that it might be.

No. It must be.

With the same sensation as before, the name of the stone comes to me.

This is the legendary –

「Philosopher’s stone, I think 」

I believe this is the most amazing thing I have ever created.