The Laws of Alchemy

[Smart Protagonist + Dark Tone + Scheming + Revenge + No Saintly Do-Gooder + Ruthless + Cunning]

Equivalent exchange is the law of alchemy, but I'll personally reassess the price of betrayal!

The Sacred Mark Falls, and a Good-for-Nothing Is Reborn

He was Adrian, the “Sacred Mark Alchemist” who stood at the pinnacle of alchemy. But when he reached for the ultimate secrets of life, his closest friend and beloved apprentice betrayed him, and he was reduced to ashes in an explosion in his laboratory.

When he opened his eyes again, his soul had possessed a boy with the same name, a century later: a frail body deemed a “good-for-nothing” in alchemy and subjected to endless bullying.

Holding Truth in a Mortal Body

His vast alchemical knowledge from his past life churned in his mind, but his new body could barely sense even the most basic materials.

When the local bully's fist came down, when the nobles who monopolized knowledge sneered at his “good-for-nothing” name,

he dipped his pen in cheap sulfur powder and used rusted iron as his brush, the earth as his array, to brew his first potion that defied common sense:

“The materials are low-grade? Then I'll make entropy flow backward and shake the laws of the world with a body as insignificant as an ant!”