Management of a Novice Alchemist: Volume 1 Part 1 by Mizuho Itsuki

Author:Mizuho Itsuki
Language: eng
Format: epub

Why was the Complete Alchemy Works so expensive, though?

One reason was that the books themselves were a special artifact.

No one but an alchemist could read them. To an ordinary person, the book appeared completely blank.

Furthermore, even if you were an alchemist, depending on your level, the volumes you could read varied.

Well, no, the opposite, actually: Your level was determined by how many volumes you could read.

A fresh graduate could only read the first volume, so in terms of level, they would be Level 1.

As the number of volumes they could read grew, their level went up, and once they could read all ten volumes they would be Level 10. Generally, up until Level 3 they were a novice, at Level 4 they became a beginner, from Level 7 they were an intermediate, and only when they reached Level 10 could they finally be called an advanced alchemist.

Only a select few managed to become advanced alchemists, and those who went even further, like my master, were called “master class” alchemists.

Because of the nature of them, it was hard to appraise if a set of books was genuine.

To the untrained eye, the books appeared to be blank, so if somebody said “this is the Complete Alchemy Works” there was no way for the average person to confirm or deny it.

That was equally true for a newbie alchemist, because even if every volume past the first looked blank, there was no telling if it was fake or not.

This necessitated a system to guarantee authenticity. A buyer would have an alchemist who could read the books witness the sale, and endorse the books as genuine.

However, when it came to purchasing all ten volumes, that required an advanced alchemist or better.

Having one of those rare advanced alchemists witness the sale and endorse the books was, obviously, not something they could be asked to do without compensation, and that cost got added to the purchase price.

This was one of the reasons the Complete Alchemy Works was so expensive.

Incidentally, copies of the Complete Works sometimes showed up in used book shops, but Master had told me, “They’re practically guaranteed to be fake, so keep away from them.”

Obviously, it’s not like there was no chance whatsoever that an alchemist had gone out of business and their books ended up there, but while that might be true for the first two volumes, it was totally out of the question for the tenth.

At least, Master said she’d never seen a genuine copy at a used book store.

Particularly malicious sellers would take advantage of the fact that beginner alchemists couldn’t confirm the authenticity of the product, selling genuine copies of the first three volumes, then tricking them with fakes for the rest.

Even knowing this, because of how expensive it was to buy them through official channels, there were still alchemists who took the risk, and got burned.

“Still, to think you’d really save up five hundred million rhea...”

Master sounded somewhat impressed as she looked at me, and I completely shared her sentiment.

Because I had seriously scrimped and saved for it.

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