Chapter 3: Chapter Two

The headmaster brought me back to the dining hall shortly after the incident and told me to feel free to wander around the academy, because of what happened he currently has no time to personally see me around, then with no further explanation, he muttered something underneath his breath and disappeared with a puff of smoke.

Well, time to get lost in the school, I thought to myself as I made my way down a large winding staircase at the far end of the dining hall.

The sconces that were mounted on the wall became much more scarce as I traveled downward, and the pungent smell between a wine cellar and a herbalist shop became more potent.

I could hear someone muttering as I reached the heavy-looking walnut-colored door at the base of the stairs.

"Hello, may I come in?" I say as I knock.

I hear the sound of a beaker crashing and an exasperated cry of agony as heavy footsteps come towards the door at an alarming rate; saying along the way, "I swear to the Scales above Richard if that's you again asking for me to transmute lead into gold again I'll transmute my fist into your face!"

I quickly backed up from the door as it swung open and the most hulking person – let alone woman – I've ever peaked half her body out of the doorway. Her face which I'd normally assume to be very beautiful was broken into a beast-like snarl, and thick, curly, chestnut-colored hair poured off her head as if it was training to consume her. Her hands could probably wrap themselves around my head and probably still touch their fingertips together, and to add to the menacing look her entire body except for her face was draped into blood red cloth.

Her face softened up as she saw me sprawled out on the stair and I could get a look at her keen-looking clover green eyes.

"Oh, I am so sorry lad! Did I hurt you?" She worriedly said, pulling me to my feet with one massive hand.

"N-n-nope I-I am fine," I barely managed to peep out. By the Heavenly Scales, she was more than twice as large as any man I have ever seen, and the way she lurched out the seemingly small doorway gave me vertigo.

"Whew! That is good to hear, you had me worried there for a second. So why did you come to see little old me for young man?"

I swiftly bit my tongue to hold back a retort that there was nothing little about her, and answered, "Uh, the headmaster said I could venture anywhere I wanted to, so I came down here."

Her face softened even more as she slid back into the room waving her hand over to me.

I walk through the door to be greeted with an open expanse of countless vials and tubes pouring into one another, with various haphazardly under most of the beakers; with an extreme variety of the different liquids flowing around it is if I have walked into a technicolor wonderland compared to the earthy tones outside this laboratory.

"Impressive isn't," beamed the giantess as she placed her hands on her hips, I nod my head in agreement.

"Sylvia Steelworth, at your service. Now tell me lad is there anything, in particular, I could procure for you?" She said as she began fine-tuning a burner's temperature. 

"Well, uh, I am supposed to do my homunculus ritual in a few weeks, got anything to help with that?"

She twisted her head around slowly as all humor drained from her face, "How long have you been here?"

"A day? I think."

The gentle placed her giant hands on my shoulders as she kneeled to eye level, then out of nowhere a bright smile sprung from her rosy cheeks, "Yes, I believe I can help you with that she said moving over to a cabinet shuffling through it until she pulled out a small, diamond-shaped, quartz bottle with a glimmering pink liquid in it.

As I stared at the liquid I felt something fill my left palm, to see the green, marble-like thing that appeared after the summoning ritual manifested in my hand.

The woman in red turned around almost instinctively, "Oh, isn't she a beauty! I never… you summoned her?" She said flabbergasted at the bead in my hand.

"Her?"

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"Of course, it's a her! You have eyes, don't you? Daft c- I mean, sorry I forgot you are just now getting into the world of alchemy." She says calming down.

"You see this really intense green color?" She says pointing at the bead, still clutching the potion in her hand.

I nod.

"That indicates that she is a nature spirit and a damn strong one at that. You really don't see many spirit gems like her, you really won big time here."

"Spirit gems?"

"Oh, sorry lad, they are the base for your homunculus, only one can be summoned lifetime, and the fact that you managed to bring forth one so strong…"

She turned her head before gently sighing, and then she placed the potion into my hand with a smile, "Now lad this will help with the summoning, but based on how strong she'll be there will still be extreme feedback from this summoning even stronger than the one you faced in the Spirit Calling ritual."

A rumble resonated throughout the walls of the room as she finished her sentence, her face twisted with unease as she clicked her tongue and looked at me, "I've said too much already, you have to leave."

"Wait for a second! Do I have to go? I really don't understand what is going on here. Nothing has been explained to me since that damned Spirit Calling ritual, have been dragged left and right by people with hardly a word said! Only that I should go with the flow of the energy around me and listen to you alchemists, can't you explain a little bit more what I should do? Or what is going to happen?" I say with a flustered fury as my true feelings pour out unto the titanic woman in front of me.

"Yes, unfortunately, things work differently on The Alchemist Isle and I fear if I say too much about what you'll see when you summon her it will break you." She says with a look of sadness washing over her face.

"But I believe in you Walter, please take care," she says with a smirk as suddenly the room seemed to elongate to a ridiculous length and she got farther and farther despite me standing still, and before I knew it I had blinked and I was at the top of the staircase… but the entrance of where it should be was walled off as if it had always been that way.

I scratched my head and backed away slowly from the wall and headed back to my room.

But one thing kept gnawing at the back of my head as I traveled back, she called me Walter even though I didn't introduce myself.

I bumped into someone before I could finish that thought, it was the Headmaster. "Enjoying your time this far Walter?"

I hurriedly nodded my head and followed up with, "Are all your teachers as strange as Mrs. Steelworth?"

"I am sorry?" The headmaster said with a confused look.

"Sylvia Steelworth the giant  lady that has a potions room within the secret room by the lunch hall."

"I am sorry Walter, are you sure you are still feeling ill from the Spirit Ritual?"

"No, why?

"This castle has never had a dedicated potions room all potions are individually created and locked in the respective creator's room, and also there has never been a Sylvia Steelworth that has worked here.

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