Chapter 19 Alchemy Laboratory (1)

The hole was small, just large enough for one person to enter.

It was possible that those monsters had emerged from inside.

Lynn hesitated for a moment.

“Master, let me go ahead and scout,” Lauren spoke up.

Lynn furrowed his brow, unsure of what dangers lay within. Allowing Lauren to go ahead posed significant risks.

However, someone had to lead the way.

“Master, I’m tough and can handle it,” Lauren said with a goofy grin, patting his sturdy chest, which emitted a dull thud.

As they were talking, the big lizard behind them suddenly moved.

Its massive body turned within the cave, and its tail rose high.

The robust tail, like a battering ram, slammed into the stone wall.

Whoosh!

The tail’s tip tore through the air, emitting a sharp sound.

The wall exploded, and a multitude of debris fell to the ground.

The impact also sent the golden door behind the wall crashing down.

Gold door fragments and shattered rocks littered the ground. Lynn moved aside some of the debris and gazed at the large chunks of the golden door. If these pieces of gold were taken by the miners, they could instantly become wealthy residents of the town. Then, one night in the future, they might fall prey to a gang of intruders who would ransack their homes, and the gold might end up in the collection of some noble.

Lauren crouched beside Lynn, marveling at the sight. He had never seen so much gold in his life.

He reached out and touched the gold.

“It’s all gold,” Lauren confirmed, realizing that he had never seen so much gold in his entire life.

If he had possessed this much gold back in the day, he might not have had to leave his hometown and family behind.

Lauren’s vertical-slit pupils appeared somewhat distant as he stared fixedly at the ground, memories he’d rather forget flooding his mind.

If it hadn’t been for the rising price of grain in his hometown, with wheat now selling at 5 silver coins a pound and his bread fetching two silver coins each, he wouldn’t have been labeled a vampire by the town’s residents. They accused him of raising the price of bread in such dire circumstances, likening him to a vampire draining the wealth of the common folk. But why did none dare to openly insult the noble grain merchants selling wheat at exorbitant prices? Even those who harbored discontent only dared to mutter behind closed doors.

One night, masked intruders stormed into his shop, smashed everything, and made off with all the money and bread flour.

Although they had covered their faces with cloth, he recognized their boots—exquisite leather boots. Regular folks wouldn’t be able to afford such footwear.

He seemed to grasp something fundamental then. There were bards who had sung that ignorance was the breeding ground for sin. So, he and his wife left their hometown and set off for the reputedly bustling Bangor Port, where they heard one could journey to more countries.

With the wall now shattered, the space behind it was fully revealed.

Behind the stone wall lay a spacious area.

The big lizard entered first.

Lynn and Lauren followed closely behind.

A shadow fell from above, but the big lizard’s tail swung suddenly, swatting whatever was descending from their path.

The creature that had been above was now sent flying.

It appeared to be the same type of monster they had seen before.

The path behind this stone wall wasn’t very long, and in less than a minute, they reached its end.

There was a faint glow ahead, and what lay before Lynn was an astonishing sight that left him utterly stunned.

At the far end of his line of sight was a strange space.

From Lynn’s perspective, an unusual space had appeared deep within the mining cave, something that shouldn’t belong there.

Directly ahead, there was a bronze-colored, ethereal space faintly emitting a soft light. It resembled a scene from a dream and a mirage at the same time.

The details of the scenery were not quite discernible, but he could make out a laboratory-like layout inside.

Experiment tables, metal frames, workbenches— all with a metallic sheen and faint bluish shadows along their edges.

As Lynn approached, the scene gradually expanded and sharpened, almost to the point where he could reach out and touch it. Then, everything vanished before him, leaving only the depths of darkness surrounding him.

Stepping back two paces, the scene reappeared.

Was this some kind of magical projection?

Lynn furrowed his brow in thought.

Yet, everything had an unexpectedly tangible quality.

The big lizard by his side observed the unfolding scene, lost in contemplation.

“Communicate with mental power,” the big lizard lying behind suddenly spoke.

Lynn looked back at the big lizard and then turned his gaze back to the scene ahead. Mental communication— and who can tell him how to communicate with mental power, anyway!

It was like someone giving you a sword and telling you to fly with it— can you just fly?

His teacher hadn’t taught him that far yet.

Lynn found this rather a pain in the ass and tried to concentrate his mental power.

“Communicate with mental power… communicate with mental power,” he repeated to himself, squinting, but nothing seemed to happen.

He had no idea how to project his mental power. Maybe he should meditate on it? Was it something like that? There was only one way to find out. Lynn closed his eyes and began to meditate.

As he started to meditate, his thoughts gradually drifted away.

Huh?

Lynn noticed something unusual.

In his dark mental sea, apart from the central core and the “anchor” fixed near the edge, there was a flickering, flashing mental fluctuation at the periphery.

It was like some kind of signal.

In Lynn’s mind, the analogy of a Bluetooth signal appeared, even though it might not be entirely accurate.

But it was the closest comparison he could find.

Lynn communicated with the flickering, fluctuating signal at the edge of his mental sea.

The connection was established smoothly, and in the next moment, his mental power gushed out like a burst dam.

A vast amount of information flooded into his mind, causing Lynn’s brain to ache slightly. He had experienced a similar sensation when he added points to mutation studies and received knowledge from the door, but there was no pain involved then.

After a considerable amount of time, Lynn’s head, throbbing slightly, finally digested the information.

He now understood the name of the space before him— the Alchemy Laboratory.

It was essentially a collapsible and foldable pocket dimension. 

Its first owner was an alchemical wizard and Lynn was its third owner. 

Inside, it contained basic alchemical instruments and apparatus.

The first owner had been a third-level wizard apprentice who was proficient in alchemy, but he suffered an incurable injury in a battle with his nemesis, fleeing and leaving behind his legacy and information about his enemy.

He had hoped that a future inheritor of his legacy, once powerful enough, would avenge him.

The information about the second owner was rather scarce.

Lynn then checked the Alchemy Laboratory, finding that most of the materials and items originally stored here had been depleted.

Considering this “experimental base” established deep within the iron mine, Lynn speculated that the second owner might have been quite impoverished.

Stepping further into the laboratory, Lynn noticed a clock-like calendar on a table.

He picked it up, and it had a scale with a pointer. Below it was a red line.

The length of the red line corresponded to the years.

After reading the information, Lynn’s expression became somewhat complex.

The first owner of this Alchemy Laboratory passed away in the year 4121 of the 7th Era of Wizard Calendar.

Now, what year was it in the Wizard Calendar?

Lynn thought for a moment, realizing that his teacher had never mentioned it. However, although he didn’t know for sure, he recalled that his teacher, Angley, had noted a specific date in his own notes.

It was in the Wizard Calendar of the year 4610. Back then, his teacher was still a young and innocent lad.

In other words, it had been at least five hundred years since that time.

At least five hundred years had passed, and if that wizard enemy of his hadn’t met an untimely end, he would likely have become a full-fledged wizard by now.

Fortunately, this inheritance didn’t impose a strict requirement on the inheritor to seek revenge. Instead, it was more of a request— if the inheritor had the strength, they could seek revenge, but if not, they were encouraged to live their life and pass down the legacy.

Lynn thoroughly examined the Alchemy Laboratory. Among the items he found there were various alchemical apparatus and a bookshelf with about forty to fifty books. 

Upon a cursory examination, Lynn noticed that these books fell into two distinct categories.

The first category consisted of ancient tomes, bearing the weight of history. Most of them contained knowledge of spells, with a significant portion dedicated to alchemy. Lynn also discovered three spellbooks containing zero-ring spells, likely left behind by the first wizard.

The second category comprised handwritten notes, many of which were filled with misspellings and had crooked handwriting. In addition, there was a three-meter-tall, handcrafted, egg-shaped metal apparatus in the corner of the room. Scattered across the nearby table were various design blueprints.

While perusing the blueprints, Lynn noticed a familiar pattern, nearly identical to the creatures he had encountered in the mine.

Case solved, the culprit responsible for these alchemical monsters was revealed— the second inheritor.

On the paper, the name of these monsters was written: Iron Earthworm.

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