The Alchemist of the Heavens

Pure Talent.

Something many people strive for their entire lives, yet only a few geniuses possess. What if you had even less talent than those with average ability?

Perhaps your life would be rubbish. You might have lost everything.

Desmond was precisely such a person. It might even be accurate to say he was the least talented individual in the Ariadne Empire. His only talent was that he never forgot anything he saw. Still, this was not a sufficient talent for this empire.

The youngest of the Duke family's three children, he was a young man regarded as the trash among geniuses, including his own parents.

He was born into a world where magic and cultivation reigned supreme, where the powerful could easily crush anyone, and where even rules sometimes held no sway. He was the youngest child of the most important duke, the symbol of power.

Desmond Moon, a disappointment.

He had never managed to create a single magic ring, nor had he even managed to enter a cultivation realm. Even when introduced to the most perfect teachers and given the highest quality equipment, he showed no progress whatsoever.

Naturally, this led to him falling out of his father's favour at the age of twelve.

He had an older brother and an older sister.

His sister was an incredible sorceress. She was the third woman in the entire empire's history to successfully create the twelfth magic circle, the highest point a mage can reach, and she had achieved this at only 26 years old. She was also the Crown Prince's fiancée and was recognised as Empress even before she ascended the throne.

His brother, on the other hand, was an incredible cultivator. He had managed to pass the final region of the World-Realm when he was only 16 years old, and just last year, at the age of 24, he had managed to enter the Heaven-Realm. He was also someone who had already managed to become a political centre.

Desmond, however, was someone who possessed neither of these powers.

In the Duke's eyes, power was the most important thing, which is why he had tried to raise his children this way. After all, in a world where rules could be directly broken by power, possessing everything was only possible in this manner.

Today was Desmond's eighteenth birthday.

In the morning, one of the servants had informed him that he was expected in the duke's room at noon, so he had dressed neatly and set off for his father's room when the midday sun was at its zenith.

He soon arrived at his father's room and knocked three times on the door.

“Thud-thud-thud!”

“Come in!” a voice said immediately.

The large doors to the room opened instantly, and Desmond entered. Inside the room, he could see his father and mother.

“Good afternoon, dear father, mother,” Desmond said suddenly.

The moment Desmond said this, his father pulled a file out onto his desk and said, “As of today, you are no longer part of our family.”

Upon hearing these words, Desmond stared blankly at his mother and father for a few seconds, then, with some difficulty, took a few steps forward and picked up the file on the desk.

When he looked at the file, he could clearly see the disinheritance form.

The signatures had already been affixed. The imperial seal and stamp were also clearly visible on the form.

Desmond knew this would happen sooner or later. Although he thought that, being untalented, he would never be expelled from the family, he had expected to be expelled from the mansion and the duchy.

Still, he hadn't expected it to happen so soon. He swallowed hard, then took a deep breath.

“May I gather my belongings?” Desmond asked, which was an unexpected move on the part of both his mother and father.

“Yes,” replied the duke, seeming to agree to at least give him his belongings as a final kindness.

“I understand,” said Desmond, looking into his father's eyes for just a few seconds before immediately leaving the room, saying, “I'm sorry for being a burden to you all these years.”

Frankly, he knew there was disappointment in his father's eyes, but the fact that a mother, especially his own mother, had looked at him as if he were a piece of rubbish, and had done so just seconds before, had devastated Desmond.

Outwardly, he wore his usual expression, but inside, he was experiencing his own personal apocalypse.

The moment he left the room, he could feel the gazes of the servants, wizards, and knights on him very clearly.

Even if Desmond wasn't talented, even if he was seen as useless, he was at least kind to those around him and had a very intelligent personality. And of course, this made him realise that the eyes on him were not looking down on him, but were genuinely turned towards him out of pity and sadness.

“It's no trouble at all,” Desmond said aloud. He realised that every servant, wizard, knight, and even a few cultivators in the mansion knew everything. He told them not to feel sorry for him, but it was very clear that every one of them was upset.

What he wondered was whether his brother and sister knew about what had happened.

Frankly, he thought they had a good relationship as three siblings: one girl and two boys. He must have been mistaken.

He went into his room, quickly gathered his belongings, and put his suitcases into the magic bag he had received as a gift from his sister on his thirteenth birthday. He did not forget to put the ring bearing the symbol of the Duchy, the last thing his grandmother had left him before she died, into the magic bag as well.

He then wandered around the mansion for a short while and, after half an hour had passed, left the mansion without looking back at his mother and father.

At least he left in a horse-drawn carriage. Even if it didn't bear the symbol of the Duchy, it was at least a horse-drawn carriage. The knights had specifically requested this from the duke himself. Even if he was useless, it wasn't hard to see how much he was loved.

After being taken to the farthest point of the city owned by the duchy, he put on a robe inside the carriage and then left the carriage, walking directly towards the 'Hunters' Guild'. Of course, he didn't forget to thank the knights who had brought him this far and to say goodbye.

Upon entering the Hunters' Guild, he went to the receptionist and said, “I'm looking for a group to take me to the border of the empire, and to the Holy Empire. I'll pay handsomely.” Desmond wanted to go to the Holy Empire. Of course, there were three reasons for this.

The first reason was that the Holy Empire was the only place where he could use the money in his possession to buy a business, even if he did not have a noble rank, and directly improve his personal wealth. The Holy Empire was an empire that worshipped Nyx directly with everything it had. There was no corruption there whatsoever; life was there for them, and the goddess's love was more important.

The second reason was that the largest and most magnificent university in the world was located at the heart of the Holy Empire, also known as Chaos City. Desmond could perhaps start his life anew there and demonstrate to the entire world how far one could progress without the existence of magic and cultivation.

The third reason was that his aunt Estella was living in the Holy Empire, being loved by even the imperial family, and he could get into the academy with this possibility.

Although the receptionist was quite surprised by his words, it was not his job to question anything, so he pulled out the information on several hunter groups and asked Desmond to choose one.

Desmond carefully examined the papers and found the group he wanted to choose. It was an A-Class hunter group; it would be accurate to say they were truly powerful individuals.

He then made a payment of exactly three hundred gold coins.

Three hundred gold pieces were enough for at least three months of hunting for even an A-Class hunter group, equivalent to entering and exiting dozens of dungeons multiple times.

Desmond might no longer be part of his family, but he was certainly clever enough to earn money. He had to earn money because he knew that one day he would inevitably be expelled from the family territory.

When Desmond's request was approved shortly thereafter, the young man left the Duchy's city, Moon City, without looking back.

The Duchy directly controlled the eastern border of the empire, meaning it owned the land all the way to where Desmond wanted to go. Naturally, this also meant he had seen these regions many times before.

There were almost seventeen hundred kilometres between Moon City and the eastern border. This was a truly enormous distance.

It wasn't difficult to realise that it would take almost forty days to travel.

Desmond was travelling in a sturdy horse-drawn carriage, though it was not luxurious. After all, he couldn't travel somewhere with a dragon travel company like his family did. That would have cost far too much money. Millions of gold coins.

On the first night of their journey, after travelling nearly fifty-five kilometres, the group of hunters informed Desmond that they would be camping outside.

He, however, stretched out on one of the carriage's relatively comfortable seats. The carriage was spacious; one could say it was something he could lie down in comfortably.

When he lay his head on the pillow, he tried to relax, but he couldn't say it was easy.

He picked up the magic bag standing right next to him, took out one of the items inside, and in a short time, he had in his hand what was perhaps the most valuable item he owned, one with great sentimental value.

While his sister and brother had inherited dozens of properties, Desmond was left with only a ring. Still, he loved his grandmother so much that he kept the ring instead of throwing it away. It would be accurate to say that he never once put it on his finger.

Desmond's grandmother was a woman who didn't care if he was weak or useless. She had passed away almost six years ago and had loved her grandchildren dearly.

Desmond was clearly moved. He had nothing else but this luxurious ring, which clearly symbolised his family ties, bearing the Moon family crest.

When he finally took the ring in his hand and examined it a little, he noticed for the first time how beautifully it sparkled when the moonlight streaming through the carriage window hit it.

“It's so beautiful…” he couldn't help but say.

When he finally stopped admiring the ring, he managed to slip it onto his index finger and immediately, within seconds, witnessed his right index finger throbbing with pain.

“AGKH!” he screamed in his mind. The pain was intense, but not enough for him to cry out.

When this pain lasted for almost five minutes, the symbol on the ring, which had been a pure white moon just a moment ago, was now a bright red symbol.

The ring looked as if it had directly sucked Desmond's blood.

At that moment, Desmond managed to hear a voice in his mind:

[Moon blood detected, Goddess Selene's System activating!]

With that voice, he instantly collapsed onto the ground where he had been lying comfortably moments before, and his consciousness completely shut down within a few seconds. He would continue sleeping until dawn, during which time many changes would occur in his body.

Changes he could not even begin to comprehend.