Chapter 2: Order Incoming
"A solution of living mercury?"
Ambrose tapped his skull thoughtfully. He'd heard of that potion before. It was a failed product from the Alchemists' Guild, if memory served. It was a byproduct of their latest slime cultivation project.
The Alchemists' Council had been suffering from a lack of innovation in recent years, and the prideful alchemists were getting more and more restless. In their eyes, no wizard, warlock, nor even deity could compare with their sacred art of reagents and beakers.
They were obsessed with the dream that alchemy could create anything. A few centuries ago, some of them had even tried to create an actual god through alchemy. Unfortunately for them, the God of Alchemy already existed—and was very offended.
Such blasphemy was punished by a lesson that the prideful alchemists would never forget: from that day onward, no alchemist could receive divine inspiration through His power.
For two whole centuries, the great City of Alchemists, Alkhemia, produced no new potion recipes whatsoever. Things only changed when the head of the Alchemists' Council finally overcame the seal and designed a new potion from sheer human ingenuity alone, saving Alkhemia from total collapse.
That council leader was a legend. He had shattered a god's curse, revived the city, and even rewrote its laws: no more restrictions on race or nationality, affordable potions for all, and an open-door policy that brought in talent from every corner of the continent. It took decades, but Alkhemia rose from the ashes.
Ambrose had arrived in Alkhemia during that era of renaissance. It was one of the reasons he'd dared to undergo his lich reincarnation there in the first place.
But with their legendary leader aging and retreating from public life, the alchemists were back to their old self-destructive habits. This time, their obsession was creating new species: metal slimes, in particular.