spagyric
[spuh-jeer-ik]
1. pertaining to or resembling alchemy; alchemic.
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Rown
looked around his new environment. The
library stood behind him, a squarish building made of fine, red brick. Other buildings stood around him, made of
metal, stone, or brick. Never the wood
he was used to. People wearing clothes
he had never even considered walked around, few of them giving him so much as a
second glance. That suited him just
fine.
His
heavy wool clothes were too warm for the current climate, but he would have to
make due until he could obtain the current fashions. What he found most interesting was how cool
the library had been, and how many books were stored inside of it. He had enjoyed the climate and learned many
things from the books.
The main
thing he learned was how far this era’s alchemists had fallen. They did not even call themselves alchemists,
shortening the term to chemist. Rown
found that appropriate, since chemists were but a pale shadow of a proper
alchemist. They did not even understand
what alchemy was. They thought it was
the pursuit of turning lead into gold, or finding eternal life or some
such. It was ridiculous. Well, not the lead into gold thing. That was possible, but nobody actually did
it. If they did, it would cause economic
collapse, so only the truly desperate alchemists did so.
But the
chemists of the modern day could not even work a simple transmutation. They were content to simply mix their
ingredients. Rown doubted any of them
even knew about the material voices. Without
that, they were barely scratching the surface of the craft.
That did
not mean they had made no advancements.
He watched a person talking on what he had learned was called a cellular
phone. It was a remarkable thing, to be
able to talk to people around the world.
The technology had advanced quite a bit since his day. Even in the realm of chemistry, they had developed
means to work around what they lacked. It
would be interesting to find out what he could do with his alchemic skills and
modern chemistry equipment. Rown himself
was especially eager to work with the device called a centrifuge. He imagined it would solve many of the things
he used to struggle with. After all,
just having the skills of a true alchemist did not mean he could do
everything.
Rown walked
along until he found a young man reading a thick book. He approached the man and cleared his throat
to get the youth’s attention.
“Excuse
me, young man, could you tell me where the chemistry laboratory is?”
“Uh, I
think it’s that one.” The man said, pointing at a squat white building with
large windows. “Don’t know what room it
is though. You’ll have to find a chem major
for that.”
“And you
are not?”
“Engineering.”
He lifted the book so that the cover could be seen. Its title was indeed one that indicated one
who worked with buildings.
“Ah, I
see. Thank you for your time.”
Rown
left the confused youth to his studies. So
much knowledge in one place, he mused.
He could only imagine what boons his alchemy could bring this new,
modern world. And what the world could
add to his own skills.
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I guess alchemy can be used to travel through time? Or many he just kind of put himself in stasis or something. Meh, it's not really important.
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