Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
When organizing the jewelry, I noticed that there was more gold jewelry than any other metal, which made sense. It was one of the reasons why Rashek was so hard to kill; he had even survived a decapitation, among other things that would have killed a normal person. It was something I had to store quickly.
"Atium," the incredulous whisper escaped my lips, I had Atium. I looked at the bracers made of Atium in disbelief; they had spikes inside to dig into the skin, possibly to burn with Allomancy, but I didn't care. I had divine metal and... they were useless. I groaned frustratedly; they feruchemically stored youth so that I could extend my life with some little tricks. Rashek had lived a millennium that way, which didn't help me in the slightest. I just had to get 10 credits with the company and buy Everlasting Talent if I wanted eternal youth without any side effects like the Atium storage.
Allomantic atium burning was... well, it was ridiculous. Seeing seconds into the future was an incredible boost in a fight to an absurd level. It was different than electrum. With allomantic electrum, you could only see your own future as a shadow moving seconds into the future, it worked, but it was restrictive, but with atium, you could see everyone else's around me, but the atium burn was very short lived, 30 seconds per gram of atium, more than enough to finish most ongoing fights, it would work if it weren't a non-renewable resource, I highly doubted I could get more atium somehow, and I didn't want to go into the Cosmere just for atium so I had to limit its use to emergencies only.
Feeling the weight of the bracers, they were about 1 or 2 kilograms per bracer. I whistled in amazement; Lord Ruler certainly did not mess around. I had to find a way to melt them into beads so I could use them. With that thought, I put the bracers away in the inventory and continued to sort the jewelry.
"L-Lerasium," I stuttered even more incredulously than before; carefully and slightly trembling, I took out the two beads stuck in the pile of jewelry and held them reverently. They were just two small beads. The two beads that Rashek left near the Well of Ascension were much lower in quantity than the Atium in the bracers, but undoubtedly more valuable. I could use them to increase my power as a Mistborn or create two new Mistborns of pure power. if I felt somewhat adventurous, I could use it as a hemalurgic spike that allowed me to steal another person's abilities, but I saw that as unlikely. Still, they were extremely valuable, so I put them away in my inventory once again. They would stay there, along with the atium bracers, until I decided what to do with them. Coming out of my stupor, I returned to sorting the rest of the jewelry as I calmed down from the surprise.
Looking at my new loot, there were about 3 or 4 pieces of jewelry for every metal except gold, of which there were a dozen of them. This is why I chose an alchemist and someone who could use all of the metal arts. I grabbed a gold ring, another silver one, and a last electrum one before searching for a quill, ink, and parchment from my trunk. I began to work with ease, transmutation, the most basic form of alchemy, equivalent exchange, in order to obtain or create something. Something of equal value must be lost or destroyed.
I wanted to see if, using alchemy, I could combine gold and silver and form electrum; working was easy, I didn't need much, 45% gold and 55% silver, the metals were pure, or as much as could be achieved with the technology that existed in The Last Empire during the era of Lord Ruler, so I had to do small extra calculations to add to the transmutation circle, I also had a sample of electrum that I observed in great detail, I had an idea of its composition and how to refine it so the work flowed quickly, once I finished I had three papers placed on the floor.
I placed both rings on one of their corresponding circles and touched them to activate. A small lightning bolt activated both transmutation circles, and the rings were easily cut before the scrolls caught fire. I quickly shook the papers, putting out the fire, and looked at the result. First, I separate the weight of each metal, 0.45 grams of gold and 0.55 grams of silver, place the small pieces on the third circle, and activate it. I watch, fascinated, as both metals combine and hold my breath. It took a few moments, but it was finished. There was no rebound. I took the metal I had created and compared it to my electrum ring. They were the same to the touch and sight, so I risked swallowing the gram of my creation.
When the metal reached my stomach I felt the furnace that was there and quickly burned the metal and... it worked, when the electrum burned allomantically I could see my own future. I saw the shadows, the shadows of myself, move with each decision I made, and I couldn't help but follow one in particular. I started laughing out loud.
"It worked!!" I squealed in joy; alchemy deconstructed and built up components on an atomic or molecular level from one to another, and the result could be used for my Allomancy and Feruchemy. I would never run out of metal, and while it was a nice joy to have a stock of jewelry that came with the template, I now had a way to replenish the metals I used at any given time, even alloys, there were a couple that I had to play around with in terms of the proportions, but it didn't matter, the important thing was that it worked and I was happy.
Now, I had also thought about using transformation magic, but I was afraid that its limits and laws wouldn't allow it, especially Gamp's Law on food. Metals weren't food, but metals would burn or decompose inside my stomach, and the last thing I would want was for them to revert back to their original material once consumed.
Once I stopped laughing in happiness, I deactivated the electrum from burning. A gram of the metal lasted 10 minutes. I would burn it later to avoid inconvenience, but for now, I had things to do. I systematically put away the jewelry while leaving some aside. It was a pity that I could not transmute atium and lerasium, not as it was now at least. I knew that they were divine metals, part of the condensed power of Ati and Leras, the holders of the fragment of ruin and preservation, respectively. The same metal had its own investiture, so it was not a simple metal. Even if I knew its chemical composition, I doubted I would succeed. That did not discourage me, in fact, it was a good challenge to see if I could replicate both metals; I only knew that atium was modeled after platinum and that it was considered part of the platinum group. Beyond that, it was up to me to find out, and I let the ideas run through my mind while I separated some select jewels.
Gold for health, tin for the senses, chrome for luck, zinc for mental speed, and steel for physical speed. I would have to store it later, but I was happy. When I got to the copper ones, something occurred to me that could turn out very well or very badly. I hummed considering it before deciding. He who does not risk, does not gain. I took all the copper rings and put them on my fingers, they fit perfectly. I let the three rings rest and closed my eyes. The feruchemy came to me easily, and I began to store the memories of Severus Snape, all his memories since he was a child. I stored all his memories in the copper rings of his time at Hogwarts, his knowledge and studies, his time as a Death Eater, a spy, a teacher, and a headmaster. I could feel them all fading from my mind and being stored quickly in the rings: 38 years of life in the rings, all his knowledge in potions and wand magic, all his secrets. It was all stored in them, and as hard as I tried, I could not remember them. Only my memories and Serena's remained. I did a light decanting on the rings, and flashes of memories threatened to flow into my mind, so I stopped. The first part had worked.
With a shaky sigh, I pulled out my phone and blinked lightly. I thought I had been quick, but I had been saving memories in the bronze rings for almost two hours. Even so I manipulated it quickly; with some mental calculations, I easily noticed that I had arrived with the credits I needed, first, Added Potential. I already had Ancient Magic and Parseltongue. I bought Magic (Harry Potter) just in case. For now, it was redundant, but without hesitation, I went to Power Swap. There were several magic systems that I wanted to try. I loved magic and I wanted to collect as much as I could, but I had to choose one. I already had in mind which one to choose. I had wanted to add it as a Template Stacking, but I didn't have enough credits in the initial build. If it worked, it would be much better.
I wanted at least one magical girl power for my magic system collection. While several were extremely powerful, for example, some from the Madoka Magica or Sailor Moon franchises. They weren't really my cup of tea, even though magical girls were called... well magical. Most of them used melee weapons or firearms. They completely ignored the magic part except for magic lasers capable of destroying small cities, so I had to find one that I liked.
Looking at the phone, I had a Waifu randomizer app, which would do. Humming lightly, I began to enter the parameters, magical girl tag. I made sure a couple of times to see that the app wouldn't automatically buy the waifu that came up. Once it was done, and I checked everything, I touched the button, and I saw a card spin until it appeared... Magia Baiser.
Mmmm, Magia Baiser, it could be. She was the closest to traditional magic that many magical girls had. She could create minions, magic blasts, and spider webs, all extremely strong. It was perfect, adding that if I were going to transform into a magical girl, I would do it with a power that did not depend on the power of love or friendship and with an outfit that I found pleasing to the eye. Even if it was a little perverted, I liked Baiser's outfit, the other magical girls were very... colorful for my taste.
So my mind was made up. I went to the Power Swap app and accepted the change, reducing Baiser's Magic power to T5. I had no extra credits to burn, and I wanted to save the few I had for emergencies. I would have to train to raise it to its full level later, but saving the credits for any eventuality seemed the most sensible thing to do.
I barely felt the change. Despite Snape's strength, there were specific things that made him as strong or skilled as he was. First, his magic, but I didn't feel any difference since I had taken care of that before. I let out the sigh I was holding. Second wasa his talents,; Snape was a genius in certain areas, a potions master, a defense against the dark arts master, a master of the dark arts, a master of legilimency and occlumency, and a fantastic duelist. Snape had many talents, and I hoped I could make up for them with the talents given by the Company. Third and last is his knowledge. Despite having a short lifespan as far as the average wizard went, Snape had accomplished a lot, and I had stored all of his expertise in my metallic minds. I still had the memories of the old Serena, but it was time to see if my previous plan had worked.
I began to pour over all of the memories of Severus that he had left in my copper-minds, and it all flowed back, year after year, into perfect memories. I couldn't help but smile as the memories kept coming back. I had succeeded in the first instance; I had the memories and knowledge that made Severus, Severus, at least in part, and now I had all of them even without their template. I didn't have the muscle or magical memory to help me more easily navigate Severus' abilities to their peak, but it was nothing that a little more effort and practice couldn't fix.
I almost squealed in joy once the memories ended. If I could just Power Swap weekly, the time it takes to recharge, on powers or skills that were based on knowledge, I could achieve a multiplication of strength. Now I regret taking Magia Baiser because it was safer. ToAru's Index would have been a substantial improvement, with 103,000 grimoires ready to be copied with ease. Now I had to wait a week to be able to achieve it.
My happiness was only dimmed by the sound of a notification on my phone. Curiously I looked at the newly arrived message, and I could feel myself turning pale.