Lord of Training - Chapter 1



Only Krnovel

1. The Alchemist Awakens Again.

1. The Alchemist Awakens Again.

[Alchemy is the art of changing order into disorder and then reestablishing order, and the process is called “alchemy.”

[Alchemy always incurs loss, and an alchemist is someone who endlessly strives to bring that loss down to “0.”]

– SSS-Class Alchemist Nicola Flamel –

*********

Neither alive nor dead.

It has no form.

My soul flows without a destination.

A deep, deep abyss.

The river of oblivion and emptiness······.

Why am I here?

Ah! I remember.

One day, a dimensional gate suddenly appeared in the world, and the waves it created rendered all electronic devices useless.

And then a monster came out of the gate.

People fled and the army fought the monsters.

However, conventional weapons could not deal with the monster, and the army could not hold out for long and was annihilated.

However, some humans developed special abilities due to dimensional waves generated from the dimensional gate.

As the military was destroyed, the national system became weaker and a powerful clan system centered around hunters emerged.

The clans dominated the area, effectively dealing with the monsters coming out of the gates, and even entering the dimensional gates to neutralize them.

Hunters who joined the clan became nobles, and were divided into classes based on their hunter rank, while unawakened commoners were treated as slaves.

Even a rat hole gets its day, and I, who was digging and carrying ore inside the dimensional gate, realized this.

And that’s a rare class, the alchemist!

“Nicola Flamel,” one of the world’s top three hunters, the one who could make buildings disappear with a touch and who created an army of powerful homunculi, was an alchemist.

He was called the Living Philosopher’s Stone and was the leader of the largest allied clan in the world.

The joy of awakening was short-lived.

Alchemists were initially extremely inefficient trash hunters.

He had no combat ability whatsoever, and no skills to assist in combat.

Moreover, the initial ductility ratio is only 1:0.01.

This means that when you combine one object, the result is only 1%.

Nicolas Flamel said that the time when an alchemist’s ability shines on the battlefield is after becoming an S-class hunter who can create homunculi.

Still, I didn’t lose hope and went to get my hunter’s license.

As soon as I received my Hunter’s Certificate from the Hunter Association, I was kidnapped by an unknown clan.

And I was locked in the basement workshop of the research institute for 15 years.

It’s been a whole 15 years!

I had no freedom.

When I opened my eyes, I would just repeat the same task, and if I was even a little lazy, I would be mercilessly tortured and beaten by the clan hunters.

‘Fucking clan brats······!’

Thinking about it again makes my blood boil.

The alchemist class should have been kept hidden until the very end.

No, I had to hide my awakening.

Alchemists are trash in combat, but they have a unique ability that no Hunter has: transmutation.

Through ductility, it was possible to compress or transform the properties of the results, and it was also possible to decompose various objects to synthesize or fuse them, and it was also possible to extract mana from special substances such as magic stones.

The small amount of special alloy made in this way was used to make expensive hunter equipment, and the small amount of mana liquid extracted by smelting magic stones was put into the mouths of hunters.

Although hunters could not eat magic stones, they could drink the mana liquid extracted from the stones, which was pure mana, and used it to restore their mana in times of crisis.

However, the only good thing was that the clan continued to supply materials for smelting, so my hunter level and rank rose quickly, and I was finally able to rise to an S-rank hunter after 15 years.

But, as I was quietly preparing for revenge, something like a bolt from the blue happened to me.

The 8th Clan War broke out, and the secret research lab I was in was attacked by a rival clan.

It’s only been a month since I became an S-class, so I couldn’t even complete the homunculus, and although I could use the external linkage, I couldn’t practice it openly because of surveillance, so my level was poor.

So, I was barely able to get my stomach pierced by a D-rank hunter’s sword and was on the verge of death.

[Abyss Gate]

The Abyss Gate was a place where you could draw souls to be put into homunculi using the abilities gained when becoming an S-class hunter.

Since I was going to die anyway, I threw myself into the abyss right before I died.

At best, there is nothing more to it than death······.

The results are the worst!

There was an outcome more painful and terrible than death.

My body was torn to pieces and my soul was trapped in an endless abyss.

Is the soul wandering through the underworld?

Trapped in a space of endless emptiness and howling screams, my soul became more and more polluted.

There was nothing I could do here.

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, we will just flow through the darkness.

But I couldn’t give up like this.

I was struggling to figure out how to get out of here, and I was also struggling to not let myself go, reminiscing about the past like I am now.

***

How much time has passed?

It was enough time to forget everything and fall into oblivion.

But I held on and held on.

One day, a ray of light appeared in the abyss.

At the same time, the cries of the soul can be heard from all directions.

Light is one!

One soul to be saved!

I knew it instinctively.

That I have to catch that light to get out of here.

I fought fiercely against the abyss monsters that were rushing in.

And after defeating tens of thousands of souls, I finally caught that ray of light.

A bright light emitted and my consciousness became blurred.

***

cold?

It’s very subtle, but I feel something alien.

A feeling of longing.

It’s tactile.

“Oh no! The platoon leader isn’t breathing!”

“what?”

“Considering that there are no external injuries, it seems that he drowned when he fell into the water.”

“What an idiot, you opened your parachute too late······.”

“Damn it! What do I do now?”

“How about blowing air into his mouth and giving him a heart massage?”

And voices are heard from all sides.

This is hearing.

It felt so good to be able to hear!

But who died?

“Private John, wait!”

“yes?”

“This is a drowning accident. Is it really necessary to revive the dead platoon leader?”

“But Captain Kalin, we’re landing in two days. Are you going to go to battle without your platoon leader?”

“You’re a fool who can’t even read a map. If we fall into enemy territory with Ensign Alain, we’ll all die. It would be better for us if Sergeant Phelps were in command.”

The dead man must have been an officer of interest.

So, no relief measures are taken.

I agree.

In war, an incompetent commander is more fearsome than the enemy.

“Even though······.”

“It’s not like we killed them. There have been more than one or two cases of people dying in accidents while falling.”

“······.”

Everyone was silent.

That was an implicit affirmation.

Then suddenly I felt out of breath.

“Cough! Woof!”

I opened my eyes with a start.

At the same time, a pungent smell tickled my nose.

My sight and sense of smell have returned.

“Cough! Cough!”

I finally came to my senses and turned my head, only to see a completely unfamiliar face.

And I saw other soldiers surrounding me.

But everyone’s eyes are filled with disappointment.

‘Huh? Could it be that I’m the platoon leader of that interest?’

I jumped up and looked into the river right next to me.

A face I’ve never seen before.

Who is this fat guy?

Why am I in someone else’s body?

Suddenly, that thought occurred to me.

Now that my body is gone, has my soul taken possession of someone else’s body?

So, was that ray of light from the abyss someone’s death?

No, what does it matter!

I feel a strong heartbeat inside me.

Ahh! I’m alive!

“Captain Alain, are you okay?”

“Sergeant, are you awake now?”

“I almost got in big trouble just now.”

Soldiers who call me platoon leader.

But just a moment ago, they were the ones who wanted me dead.

‘Since we don’t know the situation, let’s just keep quiet.’

***

────────────────────────────────────

────────────────────────────────────