In the city-state of Orichalconia, where alchemy and magic are woven into everyday life, a young man who was reincarnated from another world lives under the name Paracelsus. He was granted a cheat skill called the Recipe of All Creation, which provides perfect instructions and lists of required materials for any item he wishes to make and guarantees a flawless result regardless of the user's skill. To avoid drawing the attention of greedy individuals who would exploit or target him, Paracelsus hides this ability and ekes out a modest living as an ordinary alchemist, deliberately producing unremarkable goods. This act of concealment earns him the ironic label of a fake alchemist.

His carefully maintained low profile begins to unravel when he decides to purchase a slave as an assistant. At the slave market, he contracts with Nora, a sharp and dexterous young woman from a foreign lineage of shamans who secretly possesses formidable curse magic of her own. Alongside her, Paracelsus also takes in a nameless elven woman who has been subjected to horrific mutilation: her limbs, eyes, ears, tongue, and breasts have been severed, and she is burdened with curses that forbid sleep, madness, joy, and inflict continuous pain. Paracelsus names her Coco. What starts as a compassionate effort to treat Coco in his small workshop grows into a much larger struggle. With Nora's curse magic and his own alchemical knowledge, Paracelsus works to undo the curses and restore Coco, but their actions draw the attention of the forces that originally imprisoned her. The conflict escalates beyond the workshop, pulling in rival alchemists, sorcerers, cosmic entities, and eventually gods themselves. As the stakes rise, Paracelsus finds it increasingly difficult to keep his true abilities hidden, and the line between the fake alchemist and the real one becomes dangerously blurred.