AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Chapter 152: Ministry of Alchemy

Year 4, Winter, Second Month, Second Week.

Karl observed the happy faces standing on the podium and unconsciously matched their smiles. He was distributing the special badges that marked the first step into the Alchemy path one by one, paying special attention to memorizing the faces of the future Alchemists. Next, he picked the badges that represented the higher levels and gave them to the promoted Alchemists, congratulating each of them by name.

As the strongest Alchemist and their hero, being recognized by Karl made them feel proud and accomplished. Even though Alchemy became something common in the lives of the AK citizens, it was still seen as Originly craft, and the Alchemists also received the matching respect. After finishing the congratulatory procedures, Karl made a brief closing speech, reminding the importance of the Assistants' work and even mentioned the names of everyone who entered the Ministry. In his opinion, showing gratitude and respect was essential to keep everyone motivated and involved with the projects.

Reiner also made a brief speech, highlighting the importance of their work to AK's development, and quickly dismissed everyone. Yesterday, after the Ministry conducted their annual tests, the participants were given the rest of the day off to celebrate or cry about their failures. So today, everybody had to go back to work. The recently promoted Technicians were still confused by their new attributions, so Karl took upon himself the task to present their new positions. The group left the meeting hall with visible excitement, following their hero to the main room.

The meeting hall occupied the entire left section and was the biggest room in the Ministry. The podium on the opposite side of the door would allow up to 20 people to stand, and the rest of the room had roughly 200 wooden chairs, though it could easily fit double of that. The main room, one other hand, had just a counter and a few chairs, Karl exchanged a polite greeting with the aide on duty and entered the corridor on the left side of the counter.

From now on, you're Alchemists, so you have new obligations and benefits Everyone is required to enter a project and every project has a specific number of members of different levels. You can check the available projects on the board in the main room if you know how to read, or just ask someone by the counter. As Technicians, you have to work five hours per day on the project, and it's up to you what to do with the rest of your time. Most Alchemists join one of the study groups or participate in the classes given by the seniors.

Karl entered the first room and showed them a basic layout of the project rooms, a few tables, chairs and stone board to draw. The Ministry had six project rooms, identified by numbers on the doors. After returning to the main room, they entered a second corridor positioned at the right side of the counter. The new Alchemists could barely keep themselves from acting crazy, most of them dreamt of entering this place for months.

You probably never entered this section These are the study rooms, each room is exclusive to the study group. I suggest you join one or two groups, but no more than two. Some try, but they just ended up spending all of their time trying to catch up and dont do anything relevant. There're other informal groups amongst the Alchemists, like the shadow uprising and tools for fun, but these are the formal ones. Being formal means they receive the Ministry's support and even have a budget, also, each group can select one tool to be launched every year

First, the weapons innovation group. This is the oldest and biggest study group, they mainly focus on improving weapons or creating new ones. They often work with the Ministry of Defense. Just yesterday, they invited Councilman Tael to discuss some ideas Currently, their most promising discussion is heading towards long-range weapons using fire crystals. In fact, their idea for a shared barrier was just implemented by the soldiers in a mission.

The door was opened, so they could see inside the room. The arrangement was practically the same as the project rooms, but with a few additions like the stove. Karl explained that the Alchemists often stayed late and had to drink and eat here. Surprisingly, the newcomers thought this was cool instead of being scared by the prospect of overworking.

We have the communication group that focuses on ideas to improve our communication system. The group isn't big, but they work hard and focus on long-term improvements, probably why it's not so popular, most Alchemists prefer fast results. Sometimes I drop by to hear what they're discussing and they have some interesting ideas. Right now, they're close to a breakthrough on lowering the costs of communication

For the elemental magic lovers, we have the group of elemental studies. They mostly discuss how to use the elemental crystals better. They dont have a utility focus, but they got some good ideas to explore the crystals better. This is our second biggest study group.

Last, we have the everyday life study group. They're really passionate about finding ways to use Alchemy in our daily lives. I must say they have some very novel ideas, especially about cooking If they could make our food taste any better I can't even imagine how it would taste like

The two remaining rooms are used for the informal study groups. They have a schedule going on and sometimes even share the room. Anyway, choose wisely and prepare to work even more Good luck!

Karl left the confused Alchemists to decide where to go and returned to the main room. He walked to the last door and tested it, as expected, it didnt open. Then, he pushed his spiritual energy into the doorknob and tried again. This time around, the door was opened without any resistance. He closed the door behind and moved through the small corridor until the last room.

Karl repeated the spiritual unlocking again and entered his office. The room wasnt big, just a couple of common chairs and a big table paired with a very comfortable chair. The Alchemist sat and started to draw on a thin wooden plate over the table. The spiritual Array was more difficult than he expected, but he would get it eventually.

He continued to practice and lost track of time until he heard a knock on the door. Before he could ask, his mother's said:

Karl, are you there?

Just a moment

He was about to walk to the door when he thought of something. Karl closed his eyes and concentrated. The spiritual energy started to flow out of his hand and invisibly draw a form in the air. Suddenly, the invisible drawing glowed and the spiritual lock on the door unlocked.

Reiner entered the room, but unexpectedly, didnt see Karl. She looked around the room and finally spotted him getting up from the ground close to the table. Instinctively, she ran forward and helped her son stand up.

Karl, what happened

The sweating boy smiled.

Something I have been waiting for some time

She tried to make the boy explain, but he dodged her every question. Reiner knew his stubborn personality better than anyone, so she could only give up for now.

Are you sure you're OK for the trip tomorrow? We could delay it for a week

I'm Anyway, we need to start phase two immediately