'Crap', Earl thought to himself as he heard the door hinges squeak, everything seemed to be moving slower in his eyes, it was obvious that his grandpa was the one who was at his door, who else could it be?, but after what had just happened, whatever kind of crazy contract that had happened, it left his room and body a complete mess, he couldn't let his grandpa see his room right now, his books were all over the table, his shirt was ripped, and the giant alchemy circle was still clearly visible on his chest to anyone who came in, not to mention that he still had a massive headache as his head was suddenly flooded with so many messages that he frankly knew nothing about, "Earl, are you okay in there, I've been calling you for a while now, but you didn't answer, so I came to check up on you", grandpa Ollie said from the other side of the door, "Stop!!!" Earl shouted from the inside of his room, he then proceeded to silently approach the door, being extra careful as to not make any noise, grandpa Ollie, who was still on the opposite end of the door, paused for a moment as was frankly surprised at the sudden scream, "what's wrong Earl?", grandpa Ollie asked once more, he waited silently, but after 10 seconds there was no response, "I'm coming in" grandpa Ollie said, he then proceeded to open the door, Earl, seeing as the door was now half open, suddenly rushed towards the door, slammed it shut, and locked it.

"I'm okay grandpa, you don't have to come inside, I was just pretty busy", said Earl, 'that was close', he thought to himself, if he had been even a second late, there would've been a serious problem, grandpa Ollie, seeing his grandson's reaction and reply, smiled as he spoke from the other side of the door, "I know your at that age, but you should finish your work for the day before anything else okay?", "No grandpa I wasn't...", Earl tried to explain, but his grandfather quickly cut in, "don't worry, I remember my first time" grandpa Ollie said, "It was a bright afternoon-", "Okay grandpa I get it, you can go now!!!" Earl shouted as he didn't want to hear whatever story his grandfather was about to scar him with, "Suit yourself then" his grandpa said as headed down stairs to the shop, "Well at least he's gone for now" Earl said with a sigh of relief, he looked around his room and noticed the huge mess that whole ordeal had caused, he once again looked down at his chest and could still clearly see the alchemy circle inscribed on him, it looked like someone had dipped a rod in hot fire and drawn it across his chest, yet for some reason, when he touched it, it didn't hurt, he was amazed by the fact that he felt no pain, he quickly turned around and picked up the mirror, as he previously dropped it after hearing his grandpa, he wanted to examine the circle more, but upon close inspection, he noticed that the lines of the alchemy circle, the symbols, the whole alchemy circle itself started fading, "What?" he asked out loud out if confusion, all he could do was watch confused as the circle became less and less opaque, and eventually, it was gone, suddenly there was a loud thud, startled by the sudden noise Earl jumped back as he searched for the source of such noise, "Oh, it's just a book", he said as he spotted the old tattered book, he walked over to where it laid on the floor and picked it up, "something tells me that I shouldn't open you up" Earl said, but he was still adamant on curing his curiousity, he began investigating the book once more, it seemed like a regular old tattered book, with nothing really special about it, no inscriptions, symbols, markings, or writing on the front, side or back, however, if he wanted to serve his curiousity, he would have to open up the book, and that's exactly what he did, although this time, he did it slowly and with the utmost caution, as he didn't want whatever that had happened before to happen again, as he opened the book up he noticed something had changed, on the first page was the alchemy circle that was inscribed onto his chest, and underneath it were symbols which translated to the word grimoire. According to the history books, early alchemists were supposedly taught the art of alchemy by the gods, this same gods taught them many things, including an ancient language which was used in drawing high amounts of mana for specific purposes, some thought that the mana came from the gods themselves while others thought it came from a mana well deep within the body, but nonetheless, the mana that was drawn when using such symbols were insane amounts, and let the humans evolve and grow twice the rate they would've, hence the reason why alchemy circles where needed for most big actions, while a smaller tasks could be done without it. A grimoire however is a special book created with mana, it is normally used as more of a journal, in it contains spells the user has learnt, and also instructions on how to do such spells, draw specific alchemy circles, or perform certain rituals, in fact the book Earl used in getting the mysterious book open was his grandmother's grimoire, grimoires can be stolen and used by others, hence things like the instructions Earl followed were things anyone could learn, or more accurately, perform, however one could only use spells from another grimoire only if that person has both the same affinity, (the same mana network) as the person they stole it from, and skill to do so, but not everyone was given a grimoire, though it was common for alchemists to have them, they were a huge percentage of alchemists that didn't have grimoires, there was never a specific reason as to why, it was just how it was in their world, after all both of Earl's parents didn't have grimoires, but they were still one of the greatest Alchemists alive, yet here he was sat down holding what seemed to be a grimoire, and what's more, his name was written right below the symbols, "does this mean I have a grimoire now?" he asked himself, it would seem weird that despite both his parents lack in having one he would get one, but they could also perform Alchemy at very early ages, meanwhile he could not despite his age, as he was thinking though, he noticed that the book was vanishing the same way the circle on his chest was, only this time the book was getting covered in a white cloudy substance, the same one that covered it before, and eventually it disappeared, he was dumbfounded and completely confused, he couldn't understand what was going on anymore, his brain was overheating and he frankly didn't know what to make of his situation, so he just decided to clean the place up, he started by picking up his books that were scattered all over his desk, he was in the middle of arranging them when he realised something, he could see a small icon appear at the bottom right of his vision, it resembled the book that had just vanished in front of his eyes, he quickly placed the books in order, picked up his broken chair and sat down at his desk, he began concentrating on the icon while reaching out his hands, trying to physically grab it, "what the heck, what am I supposed to do?", immediately after asking that question, he suddenly saw those messages appear once again

[Bonding successful, You are now the new master of the Grimoire]

'Grimoire?', He thought to himself, "So I was right huh?", he said as he pondered on the subject of that book being a Grimoire, he thought for a moment, but quickly found it unlikely, this was because most Grimoires had an alchemy circle inscribed on the front of them, but that book was completely plain, ' But if it was one, then that would mean, I might be able to perform alchemy', he thought. Grimoires were books that had detailed guides to performing spells (as mentioned earlier), summoning creatures, and enhancing mana generation, most families of high political standings had powerful Grimoires, and although they were expensive, due to their previous owners being high ranking alchemists, they were not too hard to come by, if that book was really a Grimoire, it could help him start his journey of alchemy. Though not all Alchemist had Grimoires, and most didn't need one, due to fact that either their families secret alchemy was not to be documented in a Grimoire, or they had already mastered their field of alchemy, there was still the possibility of making one's own new alchemy, although it took some time and was relatively hard to do, the possibility still existed, especially since his was empty, except for the front page that is, but nonetheless, if Earl had a Grimoire it would give him new found hope, although his grandfather was going by well, a Grimoire was far beyond what they could afford, hence it would be great to have gotten one for free.

But there was one problem, "I don't still know how to.... make it reappear", regardless of if it was one, it would be useless if he couldn't manifest it, "maybe I'm missing something here", he thought as he tried remembering what the book visually looked like, as he pictured the book in his head, a word suddenly popped up in his head, he immediately said it instinctively, "Boki!!!" suddenly white particles started forming in front of his eyes, they started forming something, and soon the white particles disappeared into thin air, and in their place, was the book, only it looked a lot newer, and now had an alchemy sign on the cover of it, Earl was dumbfounded at what he just saw, not only by its sudden appearance, but the overall change in how it looked, he quickly grabbed the book in front of him, he now had hope that maybe with its new looks, it now had a few spells or instructions, maybe the contents were locked or sealed by its previous owner, and if it was, he would want to open it and read it as soon as possible, but when opening it, as expected, it was blank, just like it was before, he opened page after page, after page, after page, but found nothing, "Am I missing something here?" he thought to himself as he began turning the book upside down, while he slouched in his chair, he kept on turning the book in all sorts of directions, but nothing changed, he then remembered one thing, The system.

Each time he thought about the system or events that lead to it, it seemed to pop up, so he gave it one more try and a screen appeared Infront of him,

[HP: 100/100]

[Race: Human]

[Affinity: None]

[Affinity: None]

[You currently have no affinity for alchemy]

He noticed that he not only had no mana, but no Affinity for any form of alchemy, the system also gave him short detailed stats about himself, which just made him wonder, just what was this system?, and why he got it after trying to open the book. While looking at his stats, his decided to look more into the Affinity tab, maybe there were instructions on how to get one, as he concentrated on it, more information began to appear, Just then a message popped up

[Quest: bring an item containing magical energy to gain it's attribute/affinity]

[Reward: Alchemist Affinity, Random skill unlock]

A smile appeared on his face as he read the message, "this is great, my grandpa store is filled with all kinds of magical items", he said to himself, he was excited and was about to run downstairs when he stopped, his grandpa's items were probably sealed or contracted, and asking his grandpa for a random magical item worth money wasn't even an option, plus he needed to think carefully about what type of alchemy he wanted, most people didn't get a choice, but if he was given one, then he had to be wise in the choice he was going to make, but one thing was for sure, if this system thing was going to enable him to perform alchemy, then he would do whatever it took, the problem was finding a magical item.

Magical items are items which contain magical energy, this means that they contain natural magical essence and aid in performing alchemy, in more advanced forms, magical items could perform specific magical attacks like making an ice wall, or creating a smoke screen, they were created using beast crystals, which are extracted from the body of dead beasts, adventurers are mostly tasked with obtaining beast crystals for this purpose, but they can also be used in creating beast armor, weapons and gear, but the power of a magical item depended on the beast crystal that was used in making it, which is why it was a problem finding one he would be satisfied with, although his grandpa's shop had a few, they were all created with a lower grade tiered beast crystal, and if the strength of his alchemy would be based on the beast crystal, or strength of the magical item, then he would need to find a powerful one.

He spent the rest of the night going over each stat that his system displayed and tried to understand most of them, he understood the basic ones like Race, Affinity, HP, Skills, but got more interested in the more complicated options such as spiritual energy, he tried reading more on it, but each time it would give him an error message, and he eventually gave up on it, he then kept going down all his stats till he reached a section that was grayed out entirely, this made him wonder even more "is this because I'm currently a Level 1?", while reading the tab under the Level stat, it said that the higher his level the more skills he would be able to use, and the more options he would be able to access, for example when looking at the Shop stat, it stated he had to be Level 15 to access it, and he was currently level 1, but he could rank up once his Experience points or Exp for short, were enough, he could get Exp by completing quests, but the system said nothing more than that, he would just have to find a way to get Exp, but with that he was exhausted and needed some sleep, "Tomorrow I'm gonna get a magical item no matter what" He said as he drifted of to sleep on his desk.

It was the next day, and Earl woke up really late due to all the exhausting events that occurred yesterday, he quickly got ready and wore his school uniform, he then ran down stairs without even eating breakfast, and ran past his grandpa who was wearing a robe, he was currently opening the shop up, "Good morning grandpa, I'm sorry but I gotta go", He managed to say as he ran past him, "Wait Earl, I've got something for you-"His grandfather said but was quickly shut off "I'm sorry grandpa Ollie, tell me whatever it is you wanna say when I get back", with that Earl hopped on his bike and rode to school as quickly as possible, grandpa Ollie then sighed as he grabbed his clay pipe and inhaled some of the smoke and puffed it out, he then pulled out a pendant from his front pocket "What's his problem?, I just wanted to give him this pendant his parents left", he said as he put it back into his front pocket.