World’s Cutest Alchemist

When Eugene said that he had another collaboration offer for me, my mind immediately went to a new game. I mean, what else could there be other than that?

Unless they were venturing out into the movie scene, nothing else came to mind.

Actually, that’s a lie. Perhaps ALG was making a guild of some sorts and wanted me to affiliate with them? But, if that was the case, I’d be a little disappointed. Even if the chairman of the company himself came to offer me a guild invitation, I wouldn’t accept it.

Oh wait…

Surely not? If that’s the case, he’s going to be disappointed. At most, I’d accept an alliance offer.

“Ms. Stella, are you familiar with our company’s purpose?” He asked.

“Um…Making money, no?” I replied before I could think.

Ah, well, even if I thought through my answer, I doubt I could think of another purpose. I knew that some company’s claimed that they wanted to make the world a better place or save the environment, but, let’s be real. A game-making company like ALG, who sells $20 skins and bundles, is not one of those fellas.

“Haha,” Eugene chuckled, taking no offense to my reply, “Well, you’re not wrong. That is definitely a purpose, however, that is not the primary goal of our company.” He said.

“Mm, then, is it making games? Did you have a dream to make the most popular game ever or something?” I tilted my head.

“That’s not it.” He shook his head with a warm smile.

“…I’ve got nothing.” I shrugged, “What’s the purpose?”

Eugene turned his head and looked at his granddaughter before picking up his hot chocolate and taking a sip. He turned to me, placing his cup down before replying,

“My dream was to be a teacher.” He said.

Eh? Is he just going to tell me his backstory? Hm…Now that I think about it, I wonder if there’s a skill that shows people flashbacks whenever they go on an exposition. That’d be kind of cool, no?

What class would that skill even be under? Storyteller? Bard? Hm…

“Back when I was young, we didn’t know as much about awakeners or the tower as we do now.” He continued, “The association was still new and, if I’m being honest, not very reliable. Any information we learned was a coin flip of being accurate or fake. Especially when it came to the awakeners themselves.

You know, people like to bolster confidence; They like to say that they can do things they can’t. Especially awakeners back then. They liked to claim that there skills were the best, that they were the strongest.”

“Right.” I nodded.

Claiming you could do something you can’t!? I would never! Everything I claim I can do, I can do with a hundred percent confidence!

“That led to people forming parties based on that false knowledge. Whether it was clearing a gate, or the tower, when you can’t do what you promise, mistakes will happen. People will get injured and fights will break out.”

“I can imagine.”

“By that point, I, as well as many others, including the association realized that the way to lower the mortality rate from gates and the tower was knowledge. We knew that if people knew the right information before attempting anything dangerous, their likelihood of survival was higher.

So, the association made the first move. They created a program meant to teach people about gates, floors, classes, and the like.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on NovelPhoenix. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Wait a minute…I just realized.

Is this a history class!? Gah! No!! I don’t want to learn!! I always slept throughout history! My grade was a solid C in that class!

“You would think that this would help the injury and fatality rate, right?”

“…Yes.” I nodded. Darn it! This gramps is really forcing me to learn history! Hm…Should I just zone out?

“That’s what they thought too. But, it didn’t dramatically increase at all.” He said, looking at his hot chocolate, “Do you know why?”

“Why?”

“Because awakeners are prideful.” He said, “Forcing someone to do something doesn’t help. Awakeners believed that they knew better than the association or whatever other company tried to force knowledge down their throats.

And unawakened people thought that they had no reason to know this stuff. The awakeners will deal with any problems. They just need to live their lives.”

That’s true. Before I awakened, I didn’t care about it at all. Even though my parents are awakeners, it’s not like I, myself, am an awakener, and why would I care to look into my parent’s jobs? I knew they existed, but, it’s not like the world revolves around awakeners; It’s easy to not notice how many things awakeners actually help with in daily life until you’re one yourself.

“Can you guess why the association’s program failed?” He asked.

Everything he said is basically implying that it failed because of people being ignorant or egotistical. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was because of that. But…When I think about it, there’s one reason that comes straight to mind,

“Probably cause it was boring?” I said, tilting my head, “If it was a obligatory thing that people were forced to go to like school, I’d imagine they weren’t paying attention or sleeping during the lessons. If it was optional, and someone goes to attend but it’s just some guy sitting in front of a blackboard and speaking, then, that’s even more boring.”

Eugene smiled and slowly nodded,

“That’s right.” He said, “Put bluntly, it was extremely boring. After the association’s failed program, companies started to pop up to try and teach people, but, they all failed. Because, as you stated, it was boring.”

I nodded and as things started to click into place, Eugene continued,

“And I realized that reason faster than the others did.” He said, “If it was boring and no one wanted to learn, the solution is simple: Make it fun. A little later, I released my first game.

It was called: Awakener’s Battle Quest. You probably haven’t heard of it because of its age. It was a simple RPG side-scroller game; You’d pick a class and your skills and go on an adventure to slay the boss. It was very rudimentary because I made it alone in my garage in only a few weeks.”

“Hm…So, I think I understand?” I said, tilting my head, “You made a game, but, I doubt you invented that type of game? I’m sure there would be many other games like it?”

“That’s right,” He nodded, “RPG games with many times better graphics than mine existed. I didn’t invent anything new. But, what I did different was make it accurate. I focused on the logic behind the systems and realism. Do you know what a Greater Hounddweller’s weakness is?” He asked.

“Water attacks mainly if you want to effectively cancel out their attacks. Or if you target the gem in their forehead, that’ll stop them from using magic attacks completely.” I answered with a shrug.

“Haha,” Eugene chuckled, “You’re well informed, Ms. Stella. That’s right,” He nodded, “What my game did different than others is that it was realistic. What could happen in the game, could happen in real life.

But, my game didn’t take off immediately. Other than a few players who simply played out of interest, nothing major happened. Yet, I continued to update the game regularly, adding more monsters, skills, traits, and classes.

It was a year later when something finally changed.”

At this point, I was actually listening. I didn’t mind the history lesson anymore, but, that might be mainly because Eugene has a voice that naturally draws one’s attention; He’s very charismatic, I can’t believe someone actually made me pay attention during a history lesson.

“What happened?” I asked.

“An awakener named: RedGator212 made a forum post.” He said, “It said that he and his party had run into an unexpected enemy they have never faced before. They didn’t even know that this monster was in that gate before entering it.

It was strong. Powerful. He and his party could barely hold on. As they fought, he noticed that the monster started to look familiar, that he could predict the attack patterns. Then, he remembered.

It was a monster called the: Demonic Bloodlatcher. He had faced this monster before, but, it wasn’t in real life. It was in a game. He knew its weakness. After relaying this information to his party, they somehow managed to take it down without a single fatality.

To end his post, he thanked the game. He thanked me for creating the game. And that’s when my first game started to blow up. People realized that it was something fun to play and let you learn what you needed to know without even realizing it.”

“I see, I see.” I nodded, “That’s a neat backstory. So, why did you explain this? Does it have something to do with the offer?” I asked.

“Yes,” He smiled, “There’s actually two things I’d like to offer you. The first one relates to the story.”

“Okay…” I leaned in, indicating I was listening.

“First, we’d like to update our production gameplay in ALG Royale. We want to make it more realistic and accurate to real alchemy while still maintaining the fact that anyone can do it. And, I’d like you to be one of our specialists. If something about alchemy doesn’t line up, I’d like for you to let us know so that we can fix it.”

Oh! Oh! Oh! They’re making the alchemy better in that game!? That sounds amazing and fun! I also noticed that they said ‘one of our specialists’, so, would I be working with other alchemists? That could be interesting. The only problem is…Do I have time for that? I mean, I know I could probably do it, but, I don’t know if I should. I’m still just starting out and have other things to focus on.

Hm…

Eugene seemed to notice I was hesitating and added,

“This wouldn’t take much time out of your schedule.” He said, “Maybe once a month we’d send you information and you’d just have to confirm if that’s how it works. Your job would basically be fact checking our recipes. Optionally, you could also come in and test brewing these recipes in person; We’d pay for all the expenses in that case. Bear in mind, we would have other alchemists working with us as well.”

Mm…If it’s once a month, that should be fine? Plus! I get to make potions at their expense!? That’s like saying I get to eat cookies with someone else’s money!

“I’m interested in the offer,” I slowly nodded, “But, I’d need to read the contract first before directly accepting or rejecting this offer.”

“That’s perfect.” He said with a smile, “Remember, always read the contract yourself and get a second opinion on it before accepting anything.”

“Mm.” I nodded.

“Next, this offer doesn’t exactly relate to the story from earlier.” He said, grabbing a pile of papers from Harry’s folder and sliding them over to me.

Curiously, I picked them up and read the big bold letters on the front page.

‘TOP SECRET’

Uh…Top secret, huh? Hehe, well! Don’t mind if I do!

I flipped to the next page.

‘PROJECT - BATTLE OF THE AWAKENERS’

‘GENRE - MOBA, STORY’

I stopped reading there and unknowingly, a smile had appeared on my face.

A new game?! And it’s a MOBA?! Hehe…