==== Alchemize

I walked over to the Punch Designex to examine it. It looked sort of like a keyboard, but instead of note keys it had an actually computer keyboard. It also had a slot for cards. I took a look at the cards I had received. The Capchalogue card seemed to fit, but not the Strife Card. I shrugged and placed in the Capchalogue card. I hit a few keys on the keyboard, and heard a sound from inside the machine. Curious, I took out the card to find that there were holes punched in it! Remembering the prepunched card, I knew what to do.

I went downstairs and grabbed a cylinder thing. However, judging from the terms the Tumblr people used, it was probably a Cruxtrite Dowel. I picked it up and went back upstairs, putting it into the Totem Lathe. After I carved the thing, I brought the totem outside and put it onto the Alchemiter. It was freezing, but I could handle it for a moment.

A screen alit at the base. It told me that it wasn't very expensive to make whatever it was, grist wise, so I pressed enter. After a flash, an odd looking box appeared on the machine with a skateboard sticking half out of it, and cake smeared over the entire thing.

Alright, that was totally useless.

I decided to call up Emily.

"Hey, could you give me a few more of those cards?" I asked her.

"Sure thing!" was her response. She deposited three of those cards at my feet and I put the phone away. Picking up the three cards, I decided to put them into my pocket. However, as I was doing so, I saw something written on the back. Taking one to examine it, I saw that it just had zeros there.

"Huh, interesting." I said to nobody in particular.

As I was looking at it, Sammysprite approached me.

"Do you want to know what those are used for?" He asked.

I turned to him. Well, it wouldn't hurt to inquire. "Sure!"

"Alright, what you are holding in your hand are cards from a Fetch modus. They are a very important aspect of Alchemizing, because they are the basic thing used to see what the codes for items are! They can also be used for storage. Simply touch the card to something and if you can store it, it will be stored in the card! Very useful for an inventory, right?"

"Definitely." I said, looking at them. That was amazing. They could store things? That could make things a heck of a lot easier.

"Not only that! If you see, when something is stored inside, a code appears on the back. Just simply put that code into the Punch Designex, and you can alchemize copies of that item! The great thing is, you can even mix items together by placing them together into the machine!"

"That's interesting; I'll definitely try it out!"

And so I did.

After carving a dowel for creating new cards, I got to work to alchemize the most useful stuff I could think of.

Once I was done, I had acquired a nice pile of loot. I knew I had been using daggers, but to be honest, magic was definitely where it was at! Sadly, though, I knew that magic didn't exist, this of course made me think of ways to be creative with the use of magic-like utensils in order to emulate it as closely as possible.

I mixed a fake plastic Harry Potter wand with a stick to make a wooden wand. I then mixed the wooden wand with a steel rod to make a metal wand. After that, I mixed a mirror with a battery in order to make a light storage devise. I then mixed that with a light bulb to make a self powered light bulb. Once that was in order, I mixed that with the metal wand to create a glowing wand. However, That wasn't what I wanted, so I found a laser pointer and mixed that with the glowing wand. Ah, much better: a light throwing wand! Now there was one last thing to do. I looked all around the house, and found a wizard statue! Running back, I mixed the light throwing wand and the statue in order to create a Harmless Wand of Light!

I tested it out. It seemed to be a wand that made light radiate out of it when used. I could control where the beam of light traveled with flicks of the wand between activating it and throwing the light. After a bit of practice with it, I began to get the hang of it, but it didn't damage a thing. Although it would be useful to light dark places, I wanted to use it as a weapon. Once again, I went to work.

I took apart the laser pointer and used a screwdriver to increase the output and intensity of the laser it put out. To my surprise, this indeed changed the code for the item. I used the new laser pointer with the light throwing wand and created a legit Wand of Light! I decided to try it out.

Going outside, I engaged myself in battle with one of the odder looking imps. This one had a bowl cut and was glowing blue. I immediately let my wand loose, hitting it with a winding beam of light. It made the part of him hit red, and just made him angrier. I managed to defeat him, but this wand was definitely not the best choice. Annoyed, I went back and tried some more Alchemizing.

Finally, after a bunch of failed attempts and battles, I put together the proper weapon: A Wand of Energy! It hurdled energy through the air, hitting my opponents with the force of energy. It quickly heated up the air it sped through, causing it to emit light, eventually hitting its target, causing damage through electricity and sudden intense heat. Yeah, I admit I had to fight a ridiculous amount of monsters to finally get that weapon, but it was totally worth it!

My phone rang once more. It was Emily.

"Alright! I've built up to the first house!" she exclaimed, "Jay is getting the server ready finally, so I'll be able to enter really soon!"

"Wait, you finished already?" I asked. I was surprised, it didn't seem that long.

"You've been at your weapon making for a few hours now, haha."

"Whoa, really? I guess I lost track of time."

"Yeah! Anyway, I'll get back to you later. Jay is almost ready to connect, and you can enter the portal whenever!"

I got off the phone and looked at the number of failed attempt object lying on the ground. Well, I might as well get to alchemizing some gear to get ready for whatever was on the other side of that portal!

I mixed my jacket with the warmth blanket I had made earlier to make a warm jacket. Apparently the inside of the jacket was assured to always stay warm. Now, that was handy! I then made a warm scarf and a warm hat. I decided to make some warm Jeans and shoes while I was at it. That was when I got an idea.

I found some gloves that I could use, and made some warm gloves. However, I mixed it with my glowing wand in order to make some warm glowing gloves. Then, I mixed it with an on/off switch. There we go: toggle-able glowing gloves! With my new gear on myself, I looked once more at my computer. I still really needed to help out Jessica with her building. I got on the computer and began.

After about halfway to the portal, I was getting a bit too warm for my liking. I decided to make them all toggle-able, just so I could keep them from getting too warm.

About three fourths of the way up, I ran out of building grist. I decided to just wait a little.

It was annoying to have to keep going back to my computer every time I wanted to do something. I had to make some portable devise to use. I decided to mix my sunglasses with glass to make fake glasses. However, I ditched them, remembering how much I disliked wearing glasses. What could I make? I sat down and thought.

That's when an idea struck me. I unplugged my computer and got the code. I plugged it back in and went to go alchemize. Mixing the computer with a hologram devise I made earlier, I made a hologram computer. I think took off my toggleable glowing warm gloves and mixed that with the hologram computer. What resulted was a pair of toggleable warm hologram computer gloves. I decided to try them on and out.

When I turned the computer on, it quickly booted, and a hologram screen appeared in front of me, with a hologram keyboard. I pulled up the Sburb Client application, and sure enough, I could see Jessica's expanded house once more. I went to build it up higher, but although I could still manipulate it, she had made no grist in the time I was gone. I decided to call her up and ask if she was ok, as I scrolled around to find her.

There she was, sleeping gin her room, Georgesprite as her guard, and a cool looking guitar-like thing leaning up against the bed. I decided I would leave her be. I looked up at the clock that was on top of the fridge, and saw it read 8:37pm. It didn't feel like it was that late already, to be honest. I guess it took us a whole day to get this far. Jessica must've been worn out. I did wonder if everyone got in, though. There certainly was enough time!

I called up Acadia to ask her.

"Hey, sorry I didn't get a hold of you earlier, I was really distracted. What's up?"

"Oh, hey Jacob. I finally got into the medium a few hours ago. I'm really glad Hope was helping out Zach. I don't think he had his heart into the game at the time. I'm glad I made it in though. What are you up to?"

"I just got finished alchemizing a bunch of stuff to use. It's freezing here! I'm actually on my holocomputer right now. What weapon are you using?"

"I allocated my trusty blades in here, so I guess according to this Strife Sylladex, Bladekind. Those fencing classes really came in handy! What did you choose?" She asked.

"Oh, I've allocated wandkind. I'm actually using a Wand of Energy. It's really useful! Do you know what everyone else is using?"

"Well, Jessica is using guitarkind. Have you seen her Guitazer? She sent me a picture!"

"Ah, so that's what it was. Nah, she's actually sleeping right now. Georgesprite is protecting her."

"Oh, she was squealing to me about him over the phone. Is it really George?"

"Yeah." I responded. "Do you know if she's done a second prototyping yet?"

"Yeah, she did it with her electric keyboard, so I guess he has an instrument with him at all times, just like her."

"Yeah, sounds like something she would do. What did you prototype?" I asked.

"A Pikachu Plushy before I entered, and once I got in and saw that it turned into an actual Pikachu, I prototyped a portrait of my great grandfather. I always wanted to see him in person, and now I can talk to him! He Knows so much!"

Ah, so that's where the lightning imps and ogres came from. I smiled. Those things were really fun to defeat, and had given me a bunch of grist. It was perfect for what I was trying to Alchemize for my weapon!

"Have you made it through the first portal yet?" I asked.

"Not really." Acadia responded, sounding a little dejected. "Zach hasn't been focusing much on building for me. He seriously refused to be motivated at all, until his guide told him something. He won't tell anyone but hope what was said, though, and so I was left here with nobody acting as my server player."

Ouch, that really wasn't good at all. "Dang, so you need a new Server Player then?"

"No, I'm fine. Austen is trying to get a hold of another copy of the server program to connect to me. He's probably installing it right now."

"Alright. I'm glad to hear that you entered safely, though. We only have one person left to enter, and she's on her way right now."

"It's not Caitlyn, is it?" Acadia asked, sounding a little worried.

"God, no! I don't think anyone in our session would want her here! Besides, she's in another session. Emily Tester is the last one. You know her, right?"

"Only a little. She's the one who hangs out with Clair all the time, right?"

"Yeah, but you don't have to worry. She's in the same boat with us regarding Clair. But enough about that girl, let's think on the bright side!"

"Yeah, we won't have to worry about her again."

"That's the spirit!" I said, smiling. The phone went silent for a moment before she responded.

"Oh, Austen's calling in! Hey, I'll talk to you later. Is that ok?"

"I need to get going anyway. Good luck, Acadia!"

"Thanks, you too!"

With that, we hung up. I pulled up my computer to check and see that Jessica was ok. However, I had a message on Steam. I pulled it up and read it. It was from Emily.

I just wanted to tell you that I'm in the Medium! This place is so cool! I won't be able to help you out for a while, but I doubt you're going to need it. Good luck! You should tell us what you find there!

So we were all in. I breathed a sigh of relief. No longer would I have to worry about close friends dying in a meteor apocalypse. I hoped the rest of my friends were ok, but at this point there was nothing I could do to help them.

I walked outside and looked up. This was going to be troublesome, but I was going to have to do it. I needed to get to the end of this game, but I had a feeling it was going to be a long journey. A journey I was willing to take.

I walked back inside and quickly added my phone to my computer, giving it the phone add-on. It was going to come in handy, considering it was one of my favorite methods of communication.

I hastily climbed up toward the top of the constructs and additions of my house, Making sure to blast away and enemies before they came too close. As I got to the top, I found two huge ogres, bursting with energy of their own.
I quickly dodged aside one of the bursts of energy, and canceled out the other with a winding beam of my own. I then smashed a beam of energy into the side of one and I jumped onto the other's back. As it thrashed around, I aimed my wand carefully, and sent a plume of light directly into the opposing ogre's eyes, burning them permanently. I swiftly made a jump off of the one and landed on the bumbling blind one. I sent another plume of light, making them both blind. I sent a second one into the other's head, making it stumble.

However, I felt a little jolt begin and swiftly rolled on the ogre's back and onto the ground. Just then, A ray of energy radiated off of the ogre, and smashed into the other one, making it tumble down to the ground. It sent a wave back, hitting the other.

I dispatched of the two bumbling idiots finally, and swiped it all up with my Grist Collector Card that I had made out of one of my Capchalogue cards earlier, and jumped through the first portal, using energy to give me a propelling boost upward.

I entered the portal with a flash. Everything became blue-green and wavy around me, and I felt a falling sensation, as if I was free from gravity. Finally, I knew it was going to be time to see my land.

And as I cleared the portal, I was gone with a flash.